Leclerc has 'no answer' to stunning Q1 exit in Barcelona

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was left clueless as to the reason for his surprise Q1 elimination in qualifying in Barcelona on Saturday.

As he languished at the bottom of the pecking order in the first segment of qualifying, and with the clock ticking, Leclerc complained over the radio of his Ferrari's odd behaviour.

While teammate Carlos Sainz breezed through to Q2 on his final flyer, Leclerc was left stranded in P19. The Monegasque was in the dark over his stunning underperformance but noted that something was askew.

"I don't have the answer. For now, the only thing I can say is that the left-hand corners were undriveable," he said.

"Through the right-hand corners the feeling was very similar to this morning, but there's just something off in the left-hand corners that we need to analyse and understand because it was very far off what I expected."

• 2023 Spanish Grand Prix - Qualifying results

Leclerc, who encountered no specific problems in free practice, initially believed that the issue was perhaps linked to his tyres, but the feeling persisted on his second set of softs.

"I thought it was the tyres on the first set, but then we went on the second set, and the feeling was exactly the same," he explained.

"I just had no grip in the left-hand corners from the rears, so we'll check the car well and I would be very surprised if everything was fine.

"Even in the tricky conditions of this morning, I was feeling really good with the car, so there's something off."

Leclerc's misfortunes contrasted with the soldi performance of his Scuderia teammate Carlos Sainz who will launch his home race at the Circuit de Cataluna on the front row alongside poleman Max Verstappen.

"I had so many moments and even during the first red flag I nearly lost it and put it into the gravel in a left-hand corner," concluded Leclerc

"This was just very, very weird behaviour, so we'll have to check the car."

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