“I have no idea” - Leclerc baffled by lack of pace in Qatar F1 qualifying

Leclerc failed to progress into Q3 for the first time since the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Monegasque was over nine-tenths off teammate Carlos Sainz after the first run on mediums in Q2, but a switch to the softs wasn’t enough to progress.

Leclerc’s confusion over his lack of pace in Qatar was heard over team radio midway through Q2: “I don't know where to find the nine-tenths [to teammate Sainz] I'm missing,” he said.

Speaking to the media after qualifying, Leclerc was baffled by his lack of pace at the Losail International Circuit.

“I have no idea,” Leclerc said. “I really have no idea. It was just slow all qualifying, we need to understand what’s gone wrong, I don’t have any explanation to be honest for now.”

While Leclerc didn’t have any issues with the balance of his Ferrari, he simply didn’t have any grip.

“I don't know, it’s a strange quali for sure, I am not in the right group, yeah I never felt that I put the tyres in the right window, and just slid around, just being limited by grip, not by mistakes or an axle in particular, no balance problems, just grip, I didn’t have enough grip,” he added.

He remains confident about his race pace going into Sunday’s grand prix but wants to get to the bottom of the issues that plagued him in qualifying first.

“It [race pace] was [good] but I definitely want to understand what happened today first.”

Shortly after qualifying Ferrari revealed that it discovered a crack in Leclerc's chassis. 

The team remains hopeful he will be able to start the race from his qualifying position of 13th.