Is Charles Leclerc the fastest driver in F1?

If Charles Leclerc had converted all of his pole positions into victories in 2022, we’d be talking about him as the clear favourite for the title.

In eight qualifying sessions this year, he has been fastest in six (including on Saturday in Baku), while he has taken second place in the other two (behind Sergio Perez in Saudi Arabia and Max Verstappen at Imola).

Of course, the fact Leclerc’s Ferrari is so fast over one lap but more evenly matched with the Red Bulls in the race is one of the reasons this year’s world championship is so open and exciting. Ferrari’s treatment of its tyres means it can easily get them up to temperature over a single lap, but managing them over a race distance is not always so straightforward and has been a consistent weakness for Leclerc compared to championship leader Verstappen.

But putting the idiosyncrasies of each car’s tyre management to one side, Leclerc is undoubtedly making a claim for the title of F1’s fastest driver over a single lap. His Baku pole position lap was the latest example of his pinpoint precision and masterful speed, as he came close to the barriers on the apex and exit of almost every corner without once looking out of control.

In a session that had looked closely matched between the four drivers of the top two teams throughout Q1, Q2 and the first run in Q3, Leclerc found nearly 0.3s over his nearest rival when it mattered, and did so without the advantage of a slipstream on Baku’s long pit straight. The advantage he held was mainly in the tighter second sector of the track, with Leclerc’s best attempt at threading his Ferrari between the castle walls giving him a 0.327s advantage over second-place Perez in that sector alone. Red Bull gained lap time back on the straights, where the lower-drag setup of the RB18 came into its own, but by the time his Ferrari entered the pit straight, Leclerc had time in hand after his intense flirting with the walls earlier in the lap.

A remarkable lap in a front-running car is always easier to identify than an equally impressive lap in a midfield or backmarker car, and there are a number of drivers who…