{"id":291142,"date":"2023-04-29T12:31:18","date_gmt":"2023-04-29T12:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=291142"},"modified":"2023-04-29T13:58:35","modified_gmt":"2023-04-29T13:58:35","slug":"leclerc-crashes-in-shootout-but-holds-onto-sprint-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=291142","title":{"rendered":"Leclerc crashes in shootout but holds onto sprint pole"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Leclerc<\/a> collided with a wall but still qualified in pole position for Saturday's sprint race as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix played host to Formula 1<\/a>'s inaugural sprint shootout.<\/p>\n

The Ferrari<\/a> driver, who also qualified fastest on Friday for Sunday's race, set a quick time midway through the last session of the shootout before veering into a barrier and damaging his front wing.<\/p>\n

Red Bull's Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen each had a flying lap to try to top Leclerc's time but fell short, with Perez finishing second and Verstappen third.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Emotional Stuart breaks down over looming Wighton exit\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Why Ciraldo tried to quit Penrith twice<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

EXCLUSIVE:<\/strong> The inside story behind Sterlo's banner disaster<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Ferrari's<\/p>\n

"With the soft (tyres) it was a little tricky because we hadn't driven on the tyres since yesterday," Leclerc told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

"The conditions are very different, it was behaving much differently. The rear overheated on the second lap, I tried to push a bit more to gain some lap time and lost it in turn five.<\/p>\n

"I'm very happy with the first lap and we now need to confirm that in the race.<\/p>\n

"We will go for it. We need to be realistic. Until now we have been on the back foot in the race. The Red Bull seems to be a step ahead. Let's see how it is, hopefully we will get a good surprise. I think we improved the car quite a bit but today we will have more of an answer of where we are compared to them."<\/p>\n

The Baku City Circuit will host the first sprint of the season, alongside the debut of a revised weekend format<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under the new changes, the sprint shootout replaced free practice two and determined the line-up for the subsequent 17-lap sprint race.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Previously, F1 race weekends had a standard qualifying session for the sprint race and then used the sprint results to set the grid for the showpiece race.<\/p>\n

As the sprint will no longer have any impact on the grand prix – aside from potential grid penalties for driving infringements – it is hoped the changes will encourage drivers to engage in hard racing.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/F1\/status\/1652243948889407488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

Williams driver Logan Sargeant qualified 15th for the sprint after crashing in the first segment of the shootout.<\/p>\n

The rookie appeared to blame the Ferraris of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who were not on competitive laps, for forcing him wide as he tried to pass on a tight corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, the Ferraris were in the middle of the road,\u201d Sargeant could be heard saying over team radio.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/WilliamsRacing\/status\/1652274521112559618?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

Alpine's troubled weekend continued as Esteban Ocon qualified 13th and Pierre Gasly 19th following what the team called a \u201csuspected exhaust leak\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gasly also qualified 19th for the main race after a horror day on track, which saw him crash in qualifying and suffer an engine fire in practice<\/a> Alpine to replace the entire power unit, including the exhaust of his A523.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charles Leclerc collided with a wall but still qualified in pole position for Saturday's sprint race as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix played host to Formula […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":291145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291142"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=291142"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291148,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291142\/revisions\/291148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/291145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=291142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=291142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=291142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}