Leclerc: Ferrari turned down request for extra Q1 run

Charles Leclerc says his requests to run again at the end of Q1 were turned down by Ferrari, leaving him helpless against elimination in the first segment of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix. Leclerc qualified 16th fastest in his home race, giving him a monumental challenge to even score points.

Leclerc was visibly furious after the sessions ended and he immediately turned to senior engineer Jock Clear to demand answers.

The Monegasque will seek a further explanation after qualifying, having had his race ruined by the team's dithering.

"I asked whether they were sure," Leclerc told Sky Sports F1.

"They told me 'we think we are'. I said 'shouldn't we go out again?' But yeah, there was no real answer.

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"I think they thought we would go... I don't know. I didn't have any explanations yet in detail. It’s a very difficult one to take."

Leclerc missed a call to the weighbridge and had to be rolled back down the pit lane, but he dismissed that being a factor.

He said: "We had plenty of time, even when we went out of the box to go out again. The weighbridge was not the problem.

"We still had the fuel to go again and only change tyres. None of this was a problem. I need some explanations."

Starting way outside the points on Monaco's notoriously narrow circuit, Leclerc vowed to go full attack in his attempt to make amends.

"Hopefully [it will] rain, and then there will be a bit of lottery in there," he said.

"If it's dry, it's going to be boring. I'll have to take a lot of risks I think, even risking to crash.

"In the end, that's the only thing we need to do now, is to try and be extreme in our overtaking because this is a track where it's basically impossible to overtake, so we will see."

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