Leclerc explains crash that cost shot at Monaco GP pole

Charles Leclerc has given insight into the accident that ended his hopes for a Monaco Grand Prix pole position, after he crashed his Ferrari Formula 1 car in Q3.

The Scuderia’s promising Friday pace, as it locked out the top two positions in both practice sessions, didn’t translate into the same Saturday performance in the principality.

Although Leclerc topped Q1, he was only fourth-fastest in the second segment of qualifying. When it came to Q3, the Monegasque suffered a mediocre early effort before snatching provisional pole position ahead of everyone’s last attempts.

While Kimi Antonelli, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton eventually went faster, Leclerc improved in sector one but crashed at Tabac after losing control of the SF-26, so ended up fourth on the grid for tomorrow’s race.

“I was very much on the edge, and I think it was a very good lap until then,” the Ferrari driver said. “But I never finished it, so it's a bit needless to say that. But, yeah, it was a good lap.

“I had a little bit of dirty air in that lap where I lost it in Turn 12. I don't know, there was no traffic in itself, it was just dirty air. It made me lose a little bit the rear in entry, and I touched the wall.”

Watch: Why Antonelli is beating Russell, Hamilton puzzled by the Ferrari | 2026 Monaco Grand Prix Saturday

The crash is unrelated to what is transpiring to be a more substantial, recurrent issue for Leclerc, who said he was “struggling massively” with the Ferrari’s “extremely inconsistent” braking – which is related to tyre temperature “and another issue”.

“The thing is that I'm definitely not knowing what I'm having,” he lamented. “At the moment it's a bit of a discovery whenever I get on the brakes, and I don't want to go too much into the detail and I won't go into more detail than what I've said.

“But it's been extremely inconsistent and I've just been struggling massively. Whether it was in Montreal or here, especially when tyres are just not in the right window. On top of that, the inconsistency from the car made it very difficult.

“Corner to corner, it is not really behaving the same way. It's just extremely tricky. We are speaking about details, but I think the fact of being in or out the window of the tyre all the time, these fine details make a huge difference. I've just been struggling with it.”

Asked if this was a recent problem or if it had been there all year, Leclerc elusively replied “I’ve been struggling recently”, but made it clear to Sky Sports F1 it has been a major issue since the Canadian Grand Prix.

This will be the first time he doesn’t start his home race from the front row since 2023.