Leclerc admits he "over-dedicated himself" in qualifying

Despite his impressive records in Azerbaijan, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc endured a tough day at Baku as he crashed out in the final segment of the all-important Saturday session. The Monegasque will only start from P10 on the grid at the track where he has clinched a total of four pole positions.

Ferrari looked quick on the opening day at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and seemed to have carried over that form to qualifying day, with both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc having displayed a competitive performance in the third and final practice.

The British and the Monegasque driver posted impressive lap times in Q1, but their session started to go wrong in Q2. On their initial runs Leclerc went wide, wrecking his lap but also his team mate’s as Hamilton was forced to abort thanks to the resultant yellow flags.

Coming back out as the clock ticked down, Leclerc did enough to make Q3 on Pirelli's medium tyres. However, Hamilton was left out on his worn soft tyres, and the seven-time world champion was unable to make it out of Q2.

All eyes were set on Leclerc, but the Monegasque, who always goes well at Baku, crashed just as the rain started to fall in Q3, bringing out the red flags and failing to set a lap time.

The disappointing result leaves Leclerc and Hamilton to start from a disappointing P10 and P12, respectively which is a far cry from what the Scuderia hoped for after the highs of yesterday.

Leclerc, who had claimed the previous four pole positions in Azerbaijan, has admitted that he "over-dedicated" himself in the final stages of qualifying, and with the slightly damp conditions, he just did not have the necessary grip.

"We bet on medium as the best compound today, but unfortunately, with the cooler temperatures and drizzle we faced at the start of Q3, it became difficult to get the tyres in the right window.

"I over-dedicated myself to that corner and just didn’t have the grip, so I made a mistake. We were on the wrong side of things today, just like some others, so we will have to make the best of it tomorrow and fight to make our way back to the front."

“It’s been an extremely difficult weekend overall for me. Normally Baku is obviously a track I really enjoy driving, but it’s been a bit of a pain from the beginning of the weekend, struggling with the balance of the car.

The Monegasque revealed that he asked for a raft of setup changes after the final practice session, which looked to work, but he was unable to bring the mediums into their working window.

“I changed quite a lot the car going into Qualifying, which seemed to be better, but unfortunately we couldn’t make the medium work anymore. We started to struggle massively in bringing the medium [up] to temperature, then I did this mistake which obviously cost us a lot. Not much more to add.”

He signed off: “I think it’s going to be a very tough race tomorrow. Starting from the back [of the top 10]… to come back in front will be tricky.”