Charles Leclerc experienced a dramatic end to the sprint qualification. As the remaining drivers in SQ3 took to the track as late as possible from the pit lane, one was left behind: Leclerc. A problem with his Ferrari meant he was too late to continue his journey and couldn’t record a time. As a result, the Monegasque will start the sprint race on Saturday in tenth place.
“What the hell happened?!” Leclerc exclaimed over the radio when his Ferrari stalled. The team informed him that they had opted for the anti-stall, a mechanism that prevents an F1 car from stalling. “I don’t know if you realize, but the engine isn’t doing anything,” he replied. Eventually, he managed to get things running again, but fell short of starting his fast lap.
“I don’t know what happened,” Leclerc said after the session on F1TV. “I was in the pit lane and then the anti-stall kicked in and everything shut down. The team will tell me more about the situation later.” A pole position was out of the question, according to Leclerc. “We weren’t super strong, but we could definitely have qualified better than P10. It’s quite disappointing. We’re going to figure out what happened and try to move forward in the sprint race.”
