If further evidence were needed that Charles Leclerc is Michael Schumacher’s heir apparent at Ferrari, his pole for the Russian Grand Prix surely sealed the deal. Leclerc’s laps to take the top spot were classic Schumacher, both exquisite and untouchable. Moreover, like Schumacher, even once pole had been secured by a country mile he chastised himself for not doing better.
Ferrari are building Leclerc to be the future of their team. On form the 21-year-old is there already and displaying the same outrageous precocity of the young Schumacher. The Monegasque is the first Ferrari driver to take four consecutive poles since the seven-times world champion did so in 2000.
“The car felt amazing. It definitely feels great to be back on pole,” he said. “I just want to focus on the job. It’s a long way to go tomorrow, we’ve been confident all weekend long and it looks good for now.”
Looking this good is a novel experience this year for Ferrari, but in Sochi they gave Leclerc the tools to shine. Battered by Mercedes for over half the season, their performance this weekend strongly suggests they have truly unlocked the full potential of their car. The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, paid high praise indeed, describing it now as the “perfect package”.
They had been unexpectedly strong through the slow corners of Singapore and now, with the mixed aerodynamic demands of Russia, they were even more dominant. The championship is gone but the Scuderia’s resurgence is a glorious shot in the arm for F1 in these final six races.
In contrast Mercedes, who have never been beaten in Sochi, suffered the somewhat unusual experience of being well and truly outpaced. Lewis Hamilton, who was second in front of Sebastian Vettel, had to give everything to take the place and he was still four-tenths off Leclerc’s time.
The world champion was delighted with his performance given how quick Ferrari were. “I pushed, we pushed, as hard as we could and I was really, really happy with the lap,” he said. “That last one was the best of the weekend – as it should be – and no mistakes or anything like that.”
Wolff echoed his driver in admitting they could not challenge Ferrari over the single lap. “We extracted everything from our package today,” he said. “So I’m really happy with our performance, but we’re losing seven or eight tenths to the Ferraris on the straights and there’s only so much you can do against that.”
The race is far from a given, however. There is a long run to the first real corner at turn two and Mercedes have opted to start the race on the medium tyres. Their opponents will start on the quicker soft rubber but Mercedes’s race pace on the harder tyres has been very impressive. They hope an alternate strategy may still make a strong fight of it but first Hamilton must keep Vettel behind him off the start.
Saturday, however, belonged to Leclerc. On the first hot runs in Q3 he set a time of 1min 31.801sec. It was already well clear of his rivals, three-tenths on Ferrari teammate Vettel in second and a full half a second in front of Hamilton in third.
He promptly backed it by going even quicker on his final lap, a remarkable run as he threw his car through the corners with such abandon he almost overcooked in going a further two-tenths quicker, with a time of 1:31.628.
Hamilton had warned that he expected Ferrari to have the advantage in the remaining races after they made a major step forward in Singapore. Certainly they made the most of the two big straights at Sochi but were also strong through the corners and proved once again to have balance and grip they have been striving for all season. Leclerc exploited it to marvellous effect.
Max Verstappen was fourth fastest for Red Bull but has a five-place grid penalty for taking a new engine. Valtteri Bottas claimed fifth for Mercedes with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz in sixth.
Hamilton still enjoys a comfortable lead in the world championship, 65 points clear of Bottas, while Leclerc and Verstappen are 96 points back in third and fourth, with Vettel six points behind them.
McLaren announced in Sochi that they would be using Mercedes engines from 2021. The British team currently use Renault power units but will switch to Mercedes in a deal set to run until 2024. McLaren previously enjoyed a very strong partnership with the manufacturer between 1995 and 2014, taking three drivers’ titles, two for Mika Häkkinen and one for Hamilton.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was in eighth, with the Renaults of Nico Hülkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo in seventh and 10th. Romain Grosjean was in ninth for Haas.
Meanwhile, the Formula Two driver Juan Manuel Correa, who suffered severe injuries on 31 August in the accident at Spa that killed Anthoine Hubert, is to undergo a 10-hour operation in London on Sunday to save his right leg. He has been taken out of the induced coma he was placed in and has been deemed in a stable enough state to undergo further surgery.
“Juan Manuel is now fully conscious and his lungs have recovered much faster than anticipated,” Correa’s family said in a statement. “Sunday’s surgery will be crucial in determining Juan Manuel’s future.”
