Leclerc suggests Q3 crash rooted in overly 'aggressive' set-up
Charles Leclerc believes he perhaps went a "step too far" in the aggressive set-up he requested for qualifying, which contributed to his crash in Q3.
For the second time this weekend, Leclerc concluded his session in the barriers of Turn 7.
But contrary to yesterday when the Ferrari driver ran wide and careened off the track, in Saturday's frantic Q3, he lost control as he hit the apex of the corner, his SF-23 veering off course and once again into the outside wall.
Ahead of his mishap, Leclerc was looking blistering fast and committed, strongly determined to take the fight for pole to Red Bull as he had successfully done in Baku.
Few doubt the Monegasque's skills when it comes to a one-lap exercise.
But errors have become more frequent, which has led some to suggest that a change of style would benefit the Scuderia driver. But Leclerc disagrees.
"No, I don’t think so," Leclerc made clear. "I obviously need to - in those weekends especially - just manage it differently in Q3. In the end, it’s like this."
The 25-year-old conceded that he had perhaps gone a little extreme with the set-up of his car for qualifying.
"You can always find excuses in those situations -- the wind was really strong, it was really tricky, the setup of the car was really tricky also.
"I put myself also in a difficult situation because I wanted a very aggressive setup for qualifying, knowing that this was the setup I would need to extract the most out of the car.
"I probably did a step too far, and this is something I’ll look at after the weekend."
Leclerc believes he has a clear understanding of his strengths, and of the gains they may deliver which are never risk-free.
"I’m very hard with myself. But I also know what are my strong points and what it gives me on the other side, taking this much risk", he said.
"I know that I am taking more risks than others probably in Q3 and that's why most of the time I'm doing good Q3s but this is too much.
"Very disappointed with myself. I did the same mistake yesterday and this shouldn't happen."
"But it’s just very disappointing. Then looking forward to tomorrow, I’m pretty sure I’ll recover and reset. On that, I’m not worried."
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