Leclerc: "I am very sad, I've been stupid"

Charles Leclerc says he deserved to crash during qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix having looked set to take his first career pole position in Formula 1.

The Monegasque driver was pushing for a second lap in Q2 on medium tyres when he locked his front left, bounced over the kerbs and into the barriers at the notoriously narrow turn eight.

Leclerc had been lighting up the timing screens in final practice and heading into the qualifying hour, looked to be the man to beat around the Baku City street circuit.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 back in the pitlane, Leclerc admitted that he had made a serious mistake and summed his crash up as "stupid".

"I deserve what happened today," he said. "I am very, very sad for what happened. But I deserve it. I've been stupid – as I said on the radio.

"I've calmed down but I still think I've been stupid. This doesn't change. I will push to learn from this and come back stronger and hopefully have a good race tomorrow.

"I don't want to say anything stupid but I think looking at FP1, FP2, FP3 and Q1, pole was possible today and I threw all the potential in the bin. So I am very disappointed and I will come back stronger from this."

The Ferrari man did manage to survive the session and finished P10 in qualifying and could start there if the monocoque of his SF90 does not need replacing.