Charles Leclerc says he has “absolutely no explanation” for his and Ferrari’s lack of pace during qualifying for Formula 1’s Turkish Grand Prix.
Leclerc had shown encouraging pace during Friday’s dry running at Istanbul Park but struggled for speed in Saturday’s wet-weather qualifying session.
Leclerc qualified only 14th, two spots behind Sebastian Vettel, with a time in Q2 that was over six seconds slower than session leader Max Verstappen.
“I have no explanations, absolutely no explanations,” said Leclerc.
“We went in the heavy rain in FP3 this morning, we were competitive, we were probably one of the fastest cars out on track, coming into qualifying six seconds off.
“We’re not speaking a few tenths, we are six seconds off which is absolutely huge. I have no explanations for that.
“We need to understand what we are doing wrong in the rain. Because this is not one time, but it’s been a few times in the rain, we are struggling more than the others, and we’re not speaking about small differences.
“I don’t know what could be the cause. Because again this morning, it was raining and on intermediates, we were competitive. So no explanations.”
Vettel was 12th but still wound up five seconds behind Verstappen in the session.
“It was tough, we struggled to get tyre temperature,” he said. “It has been a tricky session, disappointing we didn’t make it through because even though it has been slippery, we looked ok the whole weekend – so we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”
