Charles Leclerc reveals true cost as yellow flag confusion emerges

Charles Leclerc was left ruing a yellow flag “misunderstanding” which caused him to back out of his final Q3 run at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Leclerc bounced back from a Ferrari power unit issue which the team identified and changed, but was forced to settle for fourth on the grid after a yellow flag mishap.

Charles Leclerc reacts to Belgian GP yellow flag confusion

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Leclerc aborted his lap after seeing a yellow flag waved, seemingly at the final corner. It was actually a reaction to Isack Hadjar parking his Red Bull in the pit lane.

The Ferrari driver had made positive progress after he and the team got to the bottom of an issue which had been costing Leclerc time down the straights.

The yellow flag “misunderstanding” was therefore an unfortunate conclusion to Q3.

“The weekend has been very tough for a different reason than previously,” Leclerc told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets at Spa-Francorchamps.

“We’ve had unfortunately something that we can explain now, but that was difficult to understand, where I was losing half a second, four tenths in the straights all the time.

“But then we hoped for qualifying we saw something, changed it and it was much more in line with what we expected. But the feeling wasn’t too bad from from FP1.

“A bit of a shame for that last lap and for that misunderstanding on the yellow flag in the last corner, but it’s the way it is.”

Asked if the issue which he spoke of was aerodynamics or power unit related, Leclerc confirmed: “It was a power unit thing that we saw and changed.”

Expanding further on the yellow flag incident when speaking with Sky F1, Leclerc claimed that it was “too visible” from his position on the track.

While he did not believe that a game-changer lap was lost, Leclerc does think that he could have secured P3 on the grid without it.

“There was a yellow flag that was supposed to be for the pit entry, but that was too visible, in my opinion, being on track,” said Leclerc.

“That probably cost me one position. I wouldn’t have done a crazy better lap time, half a second still there, but one position would have been possible.”

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Fortunately for Leclerc, grid position is not always essential at Spa-Francorchamps. The Kemmel Straight, for example, is always good for a tow and overtaking opportunities.

“It’s very powerful on this track,” said Leclerc of the tow effect, “and I just hope we get a good tow because we are lacking a little bit of straight line speed.”

Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton will launch from fifth on Sunday.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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