Leclerc’s Baku bid unravels: setup gains, a Turn 15 crash and a stubborn medium tyre
Charles Leclerc’s quest to become only the fourth driver in F1 history to take five consecutive poles at the same event ended with a crash at Turn 15 and a red flag in Q3. The Monegasque said he arrived at qualifying on the back of sweeping overnight changes that improved the Ferrari’s balance and feel — but tyre behaviour, especially on the medium compound, ultimately derailed his run.
“Obviously I’m frustrated, because it’s a track that I normally enjoy and where things flow quite naturally,” Leclerc said. “But it’s been the complete opposite the whole weekend. I’ve been struggling a lot to find the limit of the car and to find the feeling with the car.”
The turnaround before quali brought encouragement. “I changed the car quite a lot going into qualifying, and I felt a lot better. Q1 and all the laps on the soft felt much better,” he explained. The trouble came when switching to the medium. “We had kept [it] because we thought it was the best tyre. Today, with these temperatures, it was just impossible for me to switch them on.”
Leclerc estimated he was seven to eight tenths off before the error. “I was pushing like crazy. Something felt off there, and we’ll look into it.” While the Ferrari showed flashes of improved pace, the combination of Baku’s razor-thin margins and a fussy medium left Leclerc empty-handed in the fight for pole.
What Ferrari will sift through
- Impact of the overnight setup changes versus earlier sessions
- Medium compound warm-up window in Saturday’s temperatures
- Driver confidence and the knife-edge limits at Turn 15
With the car feeling better on the softs and data to analyse on the mediums, Ferrari will try to convert lessons into race-day execution around Baku’s long straights and unforgiving walls.
