Leclerc changed approach after Baku qualifying crash

Charles Leclerc has revealed that he changed his approach to qualifying following his crash during Q2 in Baku.

The Monegasque driver locked up and hit the barriers at the castle session while trying to set a timed lap on the medium compound. 

In Barcelona, Leclerc sustained floor damage in Q2 which compromised his final run in Q3. Last time out at the Monaco GP, Leclerc exited qualifying in Q1 following a strategic error from the Ferrari team.

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Leclerc says that following his mistake in Baku, he learned to change the way he approaches a qualifying session in order to iron out mistakes.

"One approach that I probably have changed after Baku was pushing too hard in Q2," said Leclerc.

"That has been a mistake because we definitely had an easy potential to go to Q3 with the car we had and to crash at that time was probably a bit stupid, as I've mentioned many times.

"Then in Barcelona, we broke part of the floor but that was caused by pushing too hard, I let the car go and broke a piece. So these are some  things I had changed."

Leclerc adjusting to life at the front of the field

Leclerc added that arriving at Ferrari from a smaller team is taking some adjusting, especially in qualifying, as he doesn't have to go flat out from the get-go.

"There have definitely been a few mistakes, there's a change of approach when you arrive in Ferrari compared to last year, when you give it all from Q1 to Q3" Leclerc said.

"But as we've seen in Baku maybe it was not very important to give it everything in Q2 because we definitely had the potential to do a lot better in Q3.

"I've definitely learned from the mistakes on my side and now I'm looking forward, not trying to repeat them and hopefully the better times will come."