Charles Leclerc has crashed his Ferrari SF-25 en route to the grid in searing rain ahead of the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix Sprint.
Rain began to fall during the F1 Academy qualifying session and only intensified as the F1 Sprint drew ever closer.
Leclerc, who qualified sixth for the Sprint, was sent out to the grid on Intermediate tyres, and replays showed he aquaplaned on the run down to Turn 11, hitting the right-hand side wall hard.
The damage to his Ferrari brought the Monegasque driver to a halt, and he was out of the SF-25, before making the grid, and before the Sprint itself.
“No, no,” Leclerc exclaimed over team radio.
“Complete aquaplaning, I don’t think I can go back.”
That leaves Ferrari with work to do to fix Leclerc’s SF-25 ahead of Saturday’s GP qualifying session and Lewis Hamilton as its sole representative in the Sprint race.
Hamilton qualified seventh for the Sprint, and it looks poised to grab the scraps of Sprint points on offer in the lower end of the top eight.
“I don’t know how you put us out on interest here,” Hamilton exclaimed over his team radio as he made his way to the grid.
Matters for Leclerc could be worse as along with failing to make the start of the Sprint, the FIA race stewards put him under investigation.
The investigation is for driving his car in an unsafe condition, given the Monegasque failed to stop his SF-25 once the damaged had occurred.
Speaking to broadcast media upon his return to the paddock, Leclerc said, ““I lost control on the straight but I wasn’t pushing that much.
“There was just a lot of aqua-planning and the car stopped responding, but it doesn’t justify what I did.
“There could be many, many reasons, but at the end of the day, I’m the one behind the wheel.”
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