Leclerc: I need to learn from “unnecessary” mistakes

Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc has branded his Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying crash as “completely unnecessary” and says he needs to work on his recent mistakes.

Leclerc lost control of his Ferrari coming out of the final corner in Q1 and spun rearwards into the barriers, causing damage to the rear wing and diffuser on his SF90.

The Monegasque had already set a lap time good enough to see him progress into the second part of qualifying and some quick work from his Ferrari mechanics enabled him to take part in Q2.

His incident followed crashing out of last weekend’s German Grand Prix while in a strong second place.

“I’ve been very lucky to go again,” Leclerc admitted.

“I have to thank the team very much for what they’ve done but it was a completely unnecessary mistake at that point in quali.

“That’s two mistakes in two grands prix. The first one wasn’t acceptable but this one is definitely not acceptable, and if I had stayed in the wall it would have been a lot worse.

“I need to learn from these mistakes. This is the second one in quali at an unnecessary time so I need to understand and work on that.

“On the other hand, it was very positive in Q3 on my side. Of course, we are half a second down, that’s not where we want to be but I’m very happy with my lap overall.”

Leclerc was also made to rue a notable error during qualifying at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, when a crash in Q2 cost him a shot of a possible pole position in Baku.

Asked if his mistakes are the result of trying to hard, Leclerc replied: “It’s a little bit different now. Obviously Baku was trying too hard.

“But this one I had Sebastian starting the lap in front, I knew I would lose a little bit of downforce but I have just been surprised by this and it’s completely my fault. I will work on it.”

Despite the error, Leclerc recovered to outpace teammate Sebastian Vettel by less than a tenth as he grabbed fourth spot on the grid.

Vettel was left frustrated as Ferrari ended up half a second adrift of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, and the German is anticipating a tough race on Sunday.

Asked what he felt had been key to Verstappen’s qualifying performance, Vettel said: “Downforce. I don’t think they’ve found something, they were quick already the weeks before coming here.

“Obviously they do have a disadvantage on the engine side but here the engine is not as important.

“We knew they would be strong, we knew Mercedes would be strong because they have the best package but obviously we can’t be happy sitting further back and not being able to intervene in that fight.

“Hopefully the tyres will all melt and we end up with more stops than one, otherwise it will be difficult.”