Charles Leclerc brushed off the requests of the Ferrari press officer during his post-qualifying interview at the Canadian Grand Prix. The Monegasque driver was eliminated in Q2 along with team-mate Carlos Sainz.
The reigning race winner struggled throughout Saturday’s running, bemoaning a lack of pace in FP3 before struggling to move clear of the elimination zones during Q1 and Q2.
When the chips were down in Q2, Ferrari sent both drivers out on used soft compound tyres in a strategy gamble. This did not pay off and resulted in Leclerc and Sainz taking the chequered flag in P11 and P12 respectively.
Walking up to his post-race interview in the TV pen, Leclerc was shown some notes on a phone by Ferrari‘s press officer. However, after taking a brief look, he snapped: “I will say what I want,” before heading into the conversation with the media.
Despite the frustration of his star driver, team principal Fred Vasseur wasn’t too concerned when asked about his squad’s prospects for race day at the Canadian GP.
“The pace was okay yesterday in both conditions, wet and dry,” he told Sky Sports F1. “But we struggled a bit more from this morning to switch on the tyres for Turn One, because we are losing more than 50 per cent of the gap in Turn One.
“It’s tight. At the end of the day, Perez is 16th and for one or two tenths you can be out. Carlos was three-tenths faster than Charles in the last corner [before] he made a mistake. It is like it is but we have to be pleased with the fact that the fight is so tight. For sure when you are 11th and 12th you are not happy.”
Leclerc’s frustrations were understandable. Red Bull have endured a rocky weekend that has become typical of late with Sergio Perez dropping out in Q1 and Verstappen performing his usual heroics to secure a front-row grid slot for Sunday’s race.
The reigning champions were there to be shot at, but this weekend is now a matter of damage limitation for Leclerc, who headed into Montreal 31 points behind Verstappen but will know that his chances of closing that gap in Canada are slim.