‘I knew there was nowhere out’ - Leclerc explains sprint qualifying crash

Leclerc made it two pole positions in as many days as he outpaced both Red Bulls and topped qualifying for Saturday’s sprint race despite crashing on his final lap of the session. 

After going top of the timesheet with his first SQ3 run, Leclerc then hit the barriers at Turn 5 on his second and final attempt.

Explaining the incident, Leclerc told Sky Sports F1: “Honestly I tried to use a bit more track on the inside of Turn 5 but for some reason today the track was not as clean as yesterday. 

“There was a lot of dust on track and by using too much, I lost it. And then basically when you are offline I couldn’t stop the car anymore.

“I lost the rear and then all I had in mind was to try and hit the wall as straight as possible to not damage the rear of the car, because we know that is a long time to repair it. 

“I tried to catch it and then I knew there was nowhere out after that.”

Leclerc said he is confident his Ferrari car is not badly damaged. 

“I don’t think there’s that much damage, only the front wing,” the Monegasque added. 

“We will of course check absolutely everything to make sure there are no troubles at the start of the race. But it wasn’t too big of a crash.”

And Leclerc is expecting a tough battle to keep Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen behind him in the sprint race given Red Bull’s superior performance on the Baku straights. 

"We need to really work on our car in race pace,” he acknowledged. “I think we have done some steps forwards after Australia but we still need to confirm it.

"We have seen Red Bull's DRS power. It will be a big challenge with the DRS activating after one lap in the Sprint. I will have pressure from behind but I will try and make the difference in the second sector.

"It's all about risk management and I will try and do the best job possible. For the race I know where the limit is and hopefully I will stay as close to it as possible without overstepping.

"We have some new parts coming in the next few races. We need to be patient now and if we're not fast enough to win this weekend let's take as many points as possible."