The yellow flag case
Also at Sky Italia clearly Charles Leclerc spoke about the yellow flag encountered in the last sector. It is a rather unusual case, as the marshal was signaling a potential danger in the pitlane, where his colleagues had stopped Hadjar’s car for routine checks. The yellow flag confused the Ferrari driver, who explained that he wanted to slow down to avoid potential penalties.
Read more Hamilton: “After the accident the car was no longer the same, I was missing 2 tenths”
Leclerc said: “For the last corner I am a bit angry. At the briefing it was discussed that there would be a yellow flag there for the pit entry, but we didn’t know exactly where. To me it seemed very in the middle: I came out of Turn 18 and the only thing I could see was the yellow flag and to avoid risks I lifted and lost what I lost. I was 4 or 5 hundredths ahead”.
Read more Yellow flag case, the guidelines are clear: drivers were not required to slow down
Charles’ expectations for the race
Charles Leclerc then broadened the scope of his analysis: “A front row would have been very good on this track. We know that Mercedes has a much better car here compared to ours. With this straight, it’s not so bad to start a bit further back. In general, this weekend we had some problems, especially in FP3 where I got much worse. We tried something and changed for qualifying, but nothing regarding the driving. You have to get on the throttle as late as possible on a track like this, so there was always something to improve in the driving. We did solve a specific problem, but the gap was too big.”
Leclerc will start fourth, from the second row of the grid alongside Russell and behind the pair formed by poleman Antonelli and Verstappen.
Read more Hamilton: “I didn’t see the yellow flag. We had a brake problem”
