Racing
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Charles Leclerc crashed out in Q3 at Barcelona and will start only 10th for the Spanish Grand Prix, turning Ferrari’s weekend brake setup change into the latest flashpoint in his worsening run of form.
The Ferrari driver was on his first flying lap in the final part of qualifying and in the fight for the front row when he lost the car at Turn 4. Leclerc ran wide under braking, hit the marbles, then slid across the gravel and into the tire barrier. The session was red-flagged with eight-and-a-half minutes remaining, and the impact automatically triggered a medical-car deployment because it exceeded 25G. Leclerc got out under his own power, but his session was over, leaving him 10th on the grid pending any penalties for damaged components.
The crash came only days after Leclerc blamed his Monaco retirement on a major brake failure rather than driver error. After hitting the barrier at the final corner there while running third with 14 laps left, he said: “I'm not even going to take the blame.” Leclerc added: “Out of the four brakes, I had three brakes not working. So in a Formula 1 car, it's never a good thing.” He said the front left was working properly, the front right was only half working, and both rear brakes were not working at all, calling it a “nightmare.”
Ferrari’s response for Barcelona was to move Leclerc toward the same brake direction Lewis Hamilton has been using. Hamilton has been running Carbon Industrie discs and pads, while Leclerc had been using a Brembo configuration he had struggled with. The plan was for Leclerc to test the Carbon Industrie setup in first practice before deciding whether to keep it, with Ferrari treating the choice as a matter of driver preference rather than a clear performance advantage for one supplier.
Leclerc confirmed before the weekend that he would follow Hamilton’s direction after Ferrari split the two cars following tests in Japan. Speaking to RacingNews365, the Ferrari driver said the last two race weekends had been much harder than he expected and added: “I will go in the same direction as Lewis from now on, at least.”
That made the Barcelona qualifying crash more significant than a single mistake. Ferrari had already changed course on Leclerc’s car after Monaco, and yet another accident has now followed immediately. It also deepens the contrast inside the team, with Leclerc still without a podium since the Japanese Grand Prix in March and down to fourth in the championship, behind Hamilton after his team-mate’s back-to-back runner-up finishes.