Charles LeclercĀ crashed out of F1 qualifying at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, leaving just oneĀ FerrariĀ in Q3.
The Monegasque driver suffered a slide heading into turn four andĀ went off into the barriers, bringing out a red flag. The medical car was deployed due to the amount of G-Force involved in the crash, but Leclerc thankfully managed to hop out of the car and walked away from the incident.
It was a huge blow to Leclerc and Ferrari, who were looking like they could challenge for pole position at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Sky Sports F1 expert Martin Brundle said about the incident: “The medical car has been deployed, meaning he hit the wall at greater than 25G. Thatās an unusual place to go off, quite so early in the corner, quite so hard. Thatās a huge impact there for Charles Leclerc.
“He hits the throttle too hard on the dirty side of the track, applies opposite lock to correct the slide. Front bites and boom, straight into the wall.”
Q3 was only delayed for about 10 minutes before the red flag went away and the remaining nine drivers were able to battle it out for pole position.
Leclerc’s recent struggles
Leclerc has really struggled with his Ferrari brakes in recent weeks, complaining that the brakes on the SF-26 were not giving him the kind of response he desired.
Ahead of the Barcelona GP weekend, Leclerc’s brakes were changed, and he started using the same brakes as his team-mateĀ Lewis Hamilton.
Leclerc has been behind Hamilton for much of the last two race weekends, and has even fallen behind the seven-time world champion in the drivers’ championship.
But despite the change of brakes, Leclerc still struggled in qualifying, and will now start the race from 10th, while Hamilton is up on the front row of the grid.
Leclerc also ruined his chances of pole position last weekend in Monaco, slamming into the wall on his final Q3 run, and also crashed during last Sunday’s race.
