Peter Windsor explains Frederic Vasseur’s role in ‘brilliant’ Baku pole for Charles Leclerc

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Charles Leclerc took pole for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix having produced a blistering lap that was three-tenths clear of Oscar Piastri.

It is the fourth time in a row for Charles Leclerc after also taking pole at the 2021, 2022 and 2023 races, with teammate Carlos Sainz rounding out the top three positions.

Ferrari was out-of-sync with their run plans throughout qualifying, owing to them not wanting to get caught up in the traffic at the end of each session.

This is what happened to McLaren’s Lando Norris in Q1 when he got caught up in a yellow flag incident, forcing him to abort his final lap as everyone else improved. He qualified in P17 but will start from P15 on the grid owing to a disqualification for Pierre Gasly and a grid penalty for Lewis Hamilton for taking a new power unit.

Leclerc and Sainz were both on the same run plan and when discussing the strategy on his YouTube channel, Peter Windsor noted team principal Frederic Vasseur’s role that played an important part in them securing pole.

Frederic Vasseur behind Ferrari Baku qualifying run plan

Leclerc set the early benchmark in Q3 while everyone else was still filtering out on track, which enabled him and Sainz to make use of a tow.

In the final flat-out sequence, Leclerc improved his lap time by three-tenths with a lap that impressed Karun Chandhok, while Sainz was able to fend off Sergio Perez who made a mistake in his final run in the middle sector.

Windsor praised Vasseur for how Ferrari approached the session, knowing that many drivers wanted to make use of the high track evolution which led to mistakes.

“Brillant management from Ferrari on how they found the lulls in the traffic, particularly in Q2 by not sending their drivers out when everyone else was on track,” said Windsor.

“This is Frederic Vasseur at his very best with the road dust he’s got from all the years in GP2 and GP3, and now at Ferrari doing his job.”

Ferrari looking for a second victory in a row

Ferrari surprised everyone at Monza when they made the one-stop strategy work with Charles Leclerc to take an iconic victory in front of their Tifosi home crowd.

Leclerc has never won at Baku despite his pole history. Sainz had strong race pace during the practice runs on Friday, although Leclerc was unable to get any high-fuel running in owing to a crash in FP1 setting him back on his run plan.

The Italian team is the outsider choice that could potentially still challenge for the Constructors’ Championship with just eight races left.

With Norris towards the back of the grid and Max Verstappen starting from sixth after a difficult qualifying session, Ferrari could maximise its chances if they keep both Leclerc and Sainz in the top three.