Leclerc apologizes for radio anger: "Isack did nothing wrong"

(Motorsport-Total.com) - Charles Leclerc was bubbling over the radio: "Damn it! That guy!" he ranted at Isack Hadjar after the latter seemingly ruined his decisive qualifying attempt in Q3. Leclerc encountered turbulence behind the Racing Bulls driver and nearly crashed into the wall at Turn 7.

Although Leclerc managed to avoid a collision, his lap was ruined. Therefore, the Ferrari driver will start from eighth place on Sunday.

After the session, he admits that it was the Frenchman's turbulent air that had bothered him on his lap. But he also admits that it wasn't Hadjar's fault and that he overreacted on the radio.

He even told the rookie this personally after the session, interrupting an interview to do so. When he returned, he described his conversation with Hadjar. "I just told him that emotions naturally run high when you're in the car," he explains.

"I don't think he did anything wrong, but we know what it's like. Depending on where you catch a car, it can have a big impact on the lap," says Leclerc. And for him, it had a big impact. "I just wanted to let him know what I said in the car, that I was pretty angry, but Isack didn't do anything wrong."

Absolutely fastest first sector

Although Hadjar was demoted three places after qualifying for an incident involving Leclerc's former teammate Carlos Sainz in Q1, he has nothing to fear from the incident with the Ferrari.

The incident was a bitter blow for Leclerc, however, as the Ferrari driver was on a truly fast lap. In the first sector, he had set the absolute fastest time of 19.713 seconds, which no other driver had beaten. Where Leclerc would have finished, of course, remains only a guess.

"I'm just very, very disappointed with Q3 because I think the start of the lap was good enough to fight for pole, and now we're starting from P8," said the Monegasque, who still hopes for a podium finish. "But it all depends on how quickly we get past the others."

Cancelled Friday had no impact

He had a difficult day on Friday: an accident took him out of the first practice session early, and he was unable to take part in the second session due to the damage, meaning he was practically missing a whole day.

But that didn't affect him in any way on Saturday: "Not at all," he says. "From the first lap of FP3, I felt good, so I have nothing to regret. I basically haven't changed the car since my three laps in FP1 because I was happy with the car."

In the third practice session, Leclerc therefore made up for a few long runs and was quite impressed: "They were very strong." Therefore, he remains "optimistic about the race, but we're making Sunday unnecessarily difficult for ourselves."