Leclerc takes “full responsibility” for poor F1 Spanish GP qualifying

Charles Leclerc made the executive decisions on his tyre choices that led to a “below expectations” seventh on the grid for the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix, aiming to have better tyres for the race.

Leclerc burned through an extra set of tyres in Q1 and then aborted a second run in the second stage of qualifying, with the aim of keeping them marginally more fresh for Sunday’s race, but this left him with just one new set to use in the final stage of qualifying.

The Monegasque was thus given one run in Q3, which he elected to take in the middle of the session – leaving his initial effort to reach fourth on the provisional grid susceptible to the improvement from other drivers.

As such, Leclerc dropped to seventh as Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Lewis Hamilton, and Max Verstappen improved on their last efforts to move in front of the Ferrari driver on Sunday’s grid.

Leclerc explained that he’d wanted to give himself a “Plan B” to go again, and that he took responsibility for qualifying being somewhat below par.

“I think that with two sets in Q3 it’s always easier and I probably would have found time,” Leclerc said.

“How much, I don’t know. Also, I think there was a little bit more clouds. But I take full responsibility of the way the qualifying has gone.

“It was my choice and in Q3 it was my choice to go in the middle when the team was pushing me to go to the end. I still wanted to have a plan B in case that one lap wasn’t going to plan a mistake or whatsoever the chance to have a second lap. So that’s on me.”

Leclerc explained that he did this with a view to Sunday, but stated that he would take responsibility – or credit – depending on how his race ended up going.

He will start directly behind his team-mate Hamilton on the grid, and alongside Alpine’s Pierre Gasly as the Frenchman enjoyed a strong Saturday at Barcelona.

“I also did all these choices in order to have better tyres for tomorrow’s race. If tomorrow we have a very bad race then I’ll have to take the responsibility of a bad weekend,” he added. “If it goes well then I’m happy to take the credit of pushing the team one way – but only time will tell.

“Obviously P7 is a little bit below our expectations. Even with the choices I’ve made for qualifying I expect it to be a bit further up. But it’s the way it is.

“Now the choices are made and I hope that tomorrow it will pay off.”