"S**T S**T F**KING S**T LAP. WHATEVER F**KING S**T LAP": Charles Leclerc furious after messing up his final lap in F1 Mexican GP qualifying
Charles Leclerc expressed his frustration after he messed up the final flying lap in the Mexico City Grand Prix on Saturday. The Monegasque driver locked up his tires, losing valuable time and ultimately missing out on pole position
Leclerc managed a brilliant penultimate lap in Q3, setting a potential P2 time that put him just behind his teammate Carlos Sainz. However, the final lap ruined his day as the #16 driver slipped to P4. While Sainz managed to improve on his penultimate lap, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris secured P2 and P3 respectively.
Frustrated by the turn of events, Leclerc vented his disappointment over the team radio.
"S**T S**T F**KING S**T LAP," Leclerc hit out on his team radio.
Following this, his race engineer Bryan Bozzi asked him to wait for others' positions, to which Leclerc replied,
"WHATEVER F**KING S**T LAP."
The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is regarded as one of the toughest tracks to race on, and despite this not being a street circuit, there are certain criteria that make it a hard track to race on.
From having low downforce to drivers locking their cars up, this Mexican track has been a hard nut to crack for drivers. Apart from Charles Leclerc, multiple other drivers locked up, slid, and lost time during their flying laps.
One such driver was Max Verstappen, whose lap time in Q3 was deleted after he cut corners multiple times. The Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualified in P5 and P6, respectively. Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, and Nico Rosberg rounded up the top 10.
Charles Leclerc shares his take on Mexico City qualifying
Following the conclusion of the Mexico City Grand Prix qualifying, Charles Leclerc shared his thoughts on his sessions. He acknowledged that he struggled throughout the race weekend so far.
"I was nowhere, I was nowhere in FP2 when I got into the car I didn't have the feeling, I was nowhere in FP3 as well. The only thing that gives me optimism is I was the fastest on race pace yesterday," he said.
"I know I struggle on low-grip tracks. I'm confident the race pace is there, but I need a good start tomorrow. I couldn't have done better today - I've been struggling all weekend," he added.
The 27-year-old's P4 finish puts him at a disadvantage in the title race against Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. With five races and two Sprints remaining, he currently sits in P3 of the Driver's Championship with 275 points, trailing Verstappen by 79 points and Norris by 22 points.