Leclerc's Barcelona Setback
Leclerc 'ashamed' after crashing Ferrari in Barcelona Q3, starts 10th despite strong pace
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Leclerc said he changed his brake setup in Barcelona—switching from Brembo to Carbon Industrie materials—after blaming last weekend’s Monaco crash on brakes, and insisted he adapted “very well straight from FP2” so “there’s nothing of that”.
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Beyond the single lap mistake, Leclerc described a longer underwhelming stretch: he said he has been “without a podium since Japan in March,” and referenced difficulty “after the last three weekends” trying to find pace, including crashes such as Monaco where he was “from third.”
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Leclerc explained the physics of the Turn 4 slide: after releasing the brakes earlier to carry more speed, his car gained traction on the “dirty side of the track,” which made the rear “lost the rear”/spin into the barriers.
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Ferrari’s own pace issue at Turn 4 was a key context for his attempt—Leclerc said he was trying to over-correct a “speed deficit” he believed Ferrari had at Turn 4, and that with Hamilton qualifying well, Sunday becomes “damage limitation.”
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Hamilton framed Ferrari’s qualifying strength as a resurgence he hadn’t seen since joining the team: Reuters reports the front-row performance was his “first since joining Ferrari last season,” and he said “We’re still early in the season, you know, so the fight is on.”
Charles Leclerc will start Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix from 10th place after crashing his Ferrari in Q3 at Barcelona, saying he felt "ashamed" after hitting the tyre barrier at Turn 4 on his first flying lap Reuters. The incident follows a disqualification error in Monaco last weekend, leaving Leclerc without a podium for three months — his last came in Japan in March ESPN.
Teammate Lewis Hamilton qualified second, his best result since joining Ferrari last season, putting him on the front row alongside pole-sitter George Russell of Mercedes Reuters. Kimi Antonelli, the 19-year-old Mercedes driver, qualified third.
How a Dirty Track Line Ended Leclerc's Q3
Leclerc had a plan going into Turn 4. Ferrari was losing roughly 0.12 seconds to Mercedes there across Q1 and Q2. To make up that time, he released his brakes earlier to carry more speed through the corner Sky Sports. But that earlier release pushed his car onto the dustier, less-grippy side of the track. The rear stepped out, and he had no way back. The Ferrari hit the tyre barrier hard.
Leclerc was clear afterward: the brakes were not to blame. He had switched from Brembo brake materials to Carbon Industrie parts before the weekend, following complaints about brake feel in Monaco. He said he adapted "very well straight from FP2," so the new setup was not the issue ESPN. The crash, he insisted, came down to one thing — his own line choice under grip-limited conditions.
Leclerc's Three-Month Skid Deepens in Barcelona
Leclerc said he has gone "without a podium since Japan in March" and pointed to difficulty over "the last three weekends" finding consistent pace Reuters. In Monaco, he was running third before crashing and then getting disqualified due to a technical error during the car's recovery. Now in Barcelona, another crash from another corner he was pushing too hard.
The pattern is hard to ignore. Leclerc says the car feels "amazing," yet he keeps failing to convert that pace into clean laps. In Barcelona, he believed Ferrari was close to the fastest car through most corners — just not Turn 4. His attempt to fix that one weakness is what ended his qualifying. "I didn't deliver," he said. "It's damage limitation now" TSN.
Hamilton's Front Row Shifts Ferrari's Race Priorities
Hamilton's P2 start is his first front-row result since joining Ferrari for the 2025 season Reuters. He said he reset mentally between qualifying segments and added, "We're still early in the season, you know, so the fight is on." His pace in Q3 showed a Ferrari car that, in the right hands on Saturday, can challenge Mercedes directly.
For Sunday, Ferrari now runs two very different races. Hamilton can chase track position and clean points from P2. Leclerc, starting P10 on a circuit where overtaking is notoriously hard, must try a higher-risk strategy to recover ground. Ferrari may consider an unconventional tyre sequence — starting on the Hard compound to gain track position when others pit — to give Leclerc any realistic shot at the top five The Race.
Martin Brundle and Italian Media See a Confidence Crisis
Sky Sports analyst Martin Brundle did not hold back. "Charles is overdriving," he said. "He sees Lewis getting that front row and he's trying to find tenths that aren't in the car. That's when the barriers start calling your name" Sky Sports. The comment cuts to the core of what many observers now see as Leclerc's problem: pressure from within his own garage pushing him past the limit.
Italian outlet Gazzetta dello Sport called the crash a "crisis of confidence" rather than a mechanical failure, noting that the "Golden Boy" is being eclipsed by Hamilton in his own team Gazzetta dello Sport. Leclerc remains cautiously hopeful about the race, but another weekend without points would sharpen questions about his standing at Ferrari heading into the second half of the season.
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