Leclerc’s Perfect Baku Qualifying Record Comes to an End After Crash
Charles Leclerc‘s impressive qualifying streak at the Baku City Circuit finally came to a halt this Saturday when he crashed during Q3, triggering a red flag and landing him in tenth position for tomorrow’s race.
“There was some spits of rain, but I don’t think it was actually wetting the track. I don’t think that this is an excuse,” Leclerc admitted after the session.
The Ferrari driver was the first to crash in the final qualifying segment, causing the second-to-last red flag of what turned out to be a chaotic day in Azerbaijan.
When asked if damp conditions played a role in his Turn 15 incident, Leclerc was quick to take responsibility.
“When you look at Carlos [Sainz]’s lap at that time, when you look at others right around me, there was some spits of rain, but I don’t think it was actually wetting the track,” he explained.
“I tried to judge the grip I would have even though it was very difficult to judge, because I had very little grip from the beginning of the lap with these tyres again. I misjudged it,” he added.
## A Weekend of Struggles
The crash caps what has been a frustrating few days for Leclerc in Baku.
“I’m obviously frustrated because it’s a track that I normally enjoy and where things flow quite naturally, but it’s been the complete opposite the whole weekend,” he said.
The Monegasque driver has struggled to find his rhythm from the beginning of the weekend.
“I’ve been just struggling a lot to find the limits of the car and to find the feeling with the car. I knew going into qualifying that it was a bit of an uphill battle.”
Leclerc did make changes to his car setup before qualifying and initially saw improvement.
“I changed quite a lot the car going into qualifying and I felt a lot better in Q1, and all the laps on the soft felt much better.”
But switching to medium tires proved disastrous.
“Then we went on medium which we had kept because we thought it was the best tyre and today with these temperatures it was just impossible for me to switch them on,” he explained.
The pace deficit was substantial even before his mistake.
“I was probably seven or eight tenths off before the mistake and I was pushing like crazy. Something felt off there.”
## From Pole Position Specialist to Mid-Pack
The result is particularly shocking considering Leclerc had claimed pole position in Baku for the past four seasons.
Now he’ll start from the fifth row of the grid in tenth place.
His teammate Lewis Hamilton also had a disappointing Saturday, failing to advance past Q2.
Despite the setback, Leclerc remains optimistic about race day.
“We can still have a great race from where we start. Our target will be to look forward to tomorrow and do a good job,” he said.
In fact, Leclerc sees a potential silver lining in his qualifying troubles.
“We’ve normally had very good Saturdays and very bad Sundays here. I hope to turn the situation around this weekend.”
