Charles Leclerc has "no idea" what went wrong in disastrous Qatar GP qualifying

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who got knocked out in Q2 during Qatar Grand Prix qualifying, does not know why he lacked grip in the session. The Monagasque driver qualified 13th on the grid and was clueless about his performance issues around the Losail International Circuit.

Speaking to the press after the session, Charles Leclerc said:

"I have no idea. I really have no idea . It was just slow all qualifying. So we need to understand what has gone wrong. So I don’t have any explanations to that now."

Watch Charles Leclerc speak about his qualifying session in the video below:

Although his teammate Carlos Sainz managed to qualify seventh, Charles Leclerc struggled to figure his own car out. Upon being asked if his problems were similar to his issues from FP2, the driver said they weren't. Given that his teammate managed to squeeze into the top 10 in Q2, that too on medium tires, Leclerc's concerns are justified.

Describing his issues in the qualifying session, Charles Leclerc said:

"Yeah. I don’t know. It's a strange qualifying for sure. I am not in the right group. So I never felt like I had the tyres in the right window, and I was just sliding around. Being limited by grip not by mistake...no balance problems, just grip. I didn’t have it. I didn’t have enough grip."

Referring to his performance issues being purely grip-related, Charles Leclerc did not deny their superior race pace in Qatar. However, the Monagasque driver felt he needed to get to the root of his Saturday issues first before he looked ahead to the race.

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Charles Leclerc had his Qatar GP qualifying time deleted

Charles Leclerc had his lap time deleted for exceeding track limits in Turn 16 during Q2. However, the Ferrari driver was a second off the pace in his first Q2 run, which baffled him when it came to analyzing his performance.

Given the long runs and race simulations from FP2, Ferrari clearly have better race pace than their McLaren counterparts. And with a free tire choice available to start the race with, Charles Leclerc could think of capitalizing on that opportunity in the main race.