Spanish GP qualifying SUSPENDED after Charles Leclerc suffers horror high-speed crash in scary scenes
CHARLES LECLERC suffered a crunchy crash in Barcelona qualifying, which sent the medical car rushing into action.
The Ferrari driver lost control at Turn Four in Q3 and clattered hard into the barriers, scattering debris onto the gravel.
Thankfully he was able to walk away from the incident unscathed but there was serious damage left on the Ferrari.
Leclerc was spotted leaving the medical centre with teammate Hamilton, who was checking he was ok.
He said: “There’s nothing wrong, there’s no excuses on trying to find the reference or whatsoever.
“I feel very ashamed, after the last three weekends that have been particularly difficult for me to find pace for issues that I had.
“And today, and this weekend, I think everything felt really, really good in these days. I needed to deliver, and I didn’t, so I felt very ashamed in general.”
When things got back underway George Russell secured pole ahead of Lewis Hamilton in P2 and Kimi Antonelli in P3.
The front end of Leclerc’s car looked like a wreck to say the least as it was lifted off the track.
The red flag was instantly out and Leclerc will now start tomorrow’s race in 10th, barring any grid penalties for replacing a gearbox or power unit parts.
Sky Sports pundit and former F1 driver Martin Brundle described it as a “huge impact”.
He added: “That’s an unusual place to go off, quite so early in the corner and quite so hard.”
It is the Monegasque driver’s second crash in seven days as he suffered heartbreak in his home race in Monaco.
With cold tyres at the restart of a safety car, Leclerc chucked his Ferrari into the barrier at the final corner in Monte Carlo late on.
The furious driver said he was made to “look like an idiot” after crashing out at his home Grand Prix due to a brakes issue.
He said on the radio immediately after crashing: “Honestly, I”m not even going to take the f—ing blame … These f—ing brakes!”
Russell looked on top throughout qualifying with blistering pace and control just a week on from a heartbreaking race in Monaco.
He was hit with two penalties in Monte Carlo to blow his chances of a podium after an engine failure in the race before that in Canada cost him the win.
The woeful run means he dropped into third in the driver’s standings, 68 back from table topper Antonelli who is 66 ahead of Hamilton.
But he says he “felt like his old self again” around the sizzling Barcelona-Catalunya circuit.
