How Charles Leclerc’s advice to Pierre Gasly came back to bite him in Italian GP qualifying

Setembro 5, 2026 lojamais44@gmail.com

A close friend of Pierre Gasly, Charles Leclerc was among the first drivers to go and congratulate the Frenchman when he arrived behind the board bearing the number 1 in parc ferme, as he stormed to pole position in Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix qualifying.

Gasly’s shock pole was a genuine surprise given how much it came out of nowhere, after three practice sessions in which the Alpine team had not particularly shown relentless pace.

However, it quickly became clear in qualifying that Gasly, who set the fastest time in Q1 and was fourth in Q2, had reason to hope he could target the front row. On his final Q3 attempt, he did better than that by taking his first F1 pole, right under the nose of the favourite, George Russell.

Leclerc was asked about that performance by Canal+, revealing in the process that on Friday evening, during the drivers’ briefing, he had shared a few tips with his friend for certain corners, the Ferrari driver having no idea at the time that he was talking to the future polesitter.

“I’m very happy for Pierre. Yesterday, we were talking at the briefing and he was asking me a bit about things for Turns 6 and 7. And I was like: ‘Come on, with Pierre, normally, we don’t fight each other too much.’ So we always share a few little things.

“And today, when I saw that he had taken pole, I went, ‘shit!’ So that’s what I told him straight away when I went to see him in the car.”

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Pierre Gasly, Alpine

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Leclerc praises Gasly and Alpine’s work

Beyond that anecdote, the Monegasque above all stressed Gasly’s quality as a driver, but also highlighted Alpine’s work in managing to put everything together this Saturday under a set of technical regulations that does not forgive errors in execution.

“But I’m super happy for Pierre, he deserves it, he’s an extremely good driver and today, on the lap where everything had to be put together and where they had to optimise the maximum from the package, they just did the perfect job. And with these cars, that pays off,” Leclerc said.

“They clearly don’t have the best car on the grid, but when you do everything perfectly, it adds up with these cars and it makes a much bigger difference than in the past. So it’s cool, in any case, to see him on pole position. Very happy for him.”