Leclerc blames himself for poor Australian qualifying

Last year’s Melbourne grand prix winner Charles Leclerc will line up for the race on Sunday in seventh after lapping 0.637s off the pace of polesitter Max Verstappen, while Sainz will start from fifth.

Ferrari has opted against introducing upgraded aero parts for this weekend, unlike Mercedes and Red Bull, but Leclerc still shouldered responsibility for the lacklustre result, saying he “wasn’t driving well”.

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“Q1 and Q2, clearly, I wasn’t on it. I wasn’t driving well. I wasn’t putting everything together, so that was my fault.

“Q3, I managed to fare a bit better. In the car, I was quite confident I could put everything together. Unfortunately, I don’t know what happened in the second run of Q3, whether it was a miscommunication with Carlos or whatever, but I found myself behind him for the whole first sector, which wasn’t great.”, he said.