Charles Leclerc was confused by a yellow flag during the qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps. The Monegasque then lifted off the throttle, which he says probably cost him a valuable position for the Belgian GP. According to Leclerc, the marshal with the yellow flag was ‘too visible’: ‘However, I still wouldn’t have set an insanely better lap time’.
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Charles Leclerc did not have a flawless qualifying for the Belgian GP. The Monegasque was confused by a yellow flag during the decisive session. In the end, he took fifth place on the grid for the Grand Prix, but moved up one spot due to Lando Norris’s grid penalty.
The confusion arose when Leclerc came across a yellow flag during his last fast lap, waved at the entrance of the pit lane. The flag was for Isack Hadjar, who was already in the pit lane at that time. At that moment, there was no incident on the track.
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According to Leclerc, the marshal was “too visible” and lifting off the throttle briefly may have cost him a better starting position. “I’m a bit disappointed about that last lap, because there was a yellow flag that was actually meant for the pit entrance,” Leclerc told Sky Sports F1. “In my opinion, it was too visible from the circuit. He was standing right in the middle, and I think that probably cost me one position. I wouldn’t have set an insanely better lap time. There was still half a second in it, but one position might have been possible.”
‘Car felt great then’
Leclerc now starts the race from P4, closely followed by his teammate Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time world champion hopes that his SF-26 will perform better during the race at Spa-Francorchamps than in qualifying. “During FP3 the car really felt good. I did a slightly longer run; the car felt great then,” said Hamilton. “In terms of setup, the car is a bit different, in a subtle way, so I still hope it’s good.”
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