Charles Leclerc was at a loss to explain the mystery power unit problem which prevented him from setting a lap time at the end of qualifying for the sprint race.
The Ferrari driver will line up 10th on the grid for tomorrow’s 24-lap race.
Having completed SQ1 and SQ2 with no obvious problems, Leclerc’s engine switched off as he drove towards the pit lane exit in the queue during SQ3. He was able to restart his engine and joined the track but despite driving a rapid out-lap the chequered flag was shown seconds before he reached the finishing line.
His Ferrari race engineer Bryan Bozzi would not elaborate on the reason for the stoppage as Leclerc drove back to the pits.
“I got the anti-stall and then everything switched off,” Leclerc told the official F1 channel afterwards. “The team told me that we will speak when I’ll be back in the garage, but obviously I went straight from the car to here, so I don’t know.”
Leclerc said the car has been “super strong” earlier in the day and was hopeful of a much better starting position.
Leclerc’s radio messages from SQ3
As Leclerc came to the end of his out-lap in SQ3, Lewis Hamilton was closing on him. Leclerc’s race engineer urged him to keep pushing as Hamilton gained on him, but after his delay with the engine problem he didn’t reach the start/finish line in time:
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| Bozzi | Hamilton three. We still need to push. |
| Leclerc | I know. |
| Bozzi | Hamilton two. |
| Bozzi | And keep pushing. Hamilton one second behind. Mode push. |
As he drove back to the pits without having been able to set a time, Leclerc asked his team what had gone wrong and explained that his engine had cut out for no clear reason:
| Leclerc | What the hell happened, guys? |
| Bozzi | We took the anti-stall. |
| Leclerc | The anti-stall cannot stop the engine. |
| Leclerc | The engine switched off. I don’t know if you noticed, there was no engine. Ignition went to ‘off’ so I had to re-do the whole thing. |
| Bozzi | Copy, box. We’ll talk about it inside the garage. |
| Leclerc | Please let me know what is it once I get out of the car by Mia [Djacic, Ferrari press officer] or whatever. |
| Bozzi | Yeah. yeah. as soon as you come in we’ll talk about it. |
| Leclerc | … so let me know before when I’m with Mia, thank you. |
| Bozzi | Copy. |
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