The most recent Formula 1 triple header was an interesting one,
with races in the United States, Mexico and Brazil, with a familiar
picture of Max Verstappen winning, claiming his his 15th, 16th and
17th wins of the year. During two of those three Grands Prix,
Verstappen did not take pole, losing the fastest time in Austin due
to breaching track limits while US-pole-sitter Charles Leclerc was
just plain faster next time out in Mexico City. Verstappen denied
Leclerc a hat-trick in Sao Paulo, getting his pole lap in seconds
before that storm arrived, bringing with it biblical rain. However,
on each race day, Verstappen was 25 seconds (before Leclerc’s DSQ)
clear in the US, 23 ahead by the flag in Mexico and 50 seconds
clear of Carlos Sainz at Interlagos, following Leclerc’s DNS
following hydraulic failure and formation lap crash. Those two wins
in the US and Mexico also brought up an usual statistic as
Verstappen reached double digits in the ‘wins from a Leclerc pole
position’ category. They were Leclerc’s 21st and 22nd pole
positions, with the wins being Verstappen’s ninth and 10th,
respectively from the Monegasque’s poles. For reference, four of
Leclerc’s five wins have come from pole – with his most recent win
in Austria 2022 the only one not to come from P1 on the grid. GP
wins after a pole position by Charles Leclerc Ferrari knows where
deficit is Ferrari’s deficit to Red Bull is in terms of race pace,
with Leclerc knowing he cannot challenge the RB19 over the race
distance, even if he has a potent weapon on a Saturday. “It’s
always nice, but at the same time, for me, it matters the most on
Sunday and in races,” he told media including RacingNews365. “At
this time we don’t we don’t really have the car in order to make
those pole positions a win, or at least a really good result on
Sunday. So we really have to work on that. “That’s where we are all
focusing at the moment, to try and find performance coming the
race, and we’ve still got quite a bit of work to do.”
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