Charles Leclerc will start the Belgian Grand Prix from fourth position on the grid after a difficult qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps, but the Ferrari driver was left frustrated by a yellow flag that appeared during the closing stages of his final Q3 lap.
The Monegasque driver ended the session more than half a second away from pole-sitter Andrea Kimi Antonelli. However, Charles Leclerc encountered a yellow flag at the final corner, which he initially believed related to a potential danger on track. The signal was instead connected to Isack Hadjar, who had stopped in the pit lane on the instructions of the marshals.
Charles Leclerc explains Spa yellow flag confusion
Speaking to Canal+, Charles Leclerc explained that the flag caused him to lift at the end of his lap because of where he saw the marshal positioned.
“I was quite annoyed at the end of my lap because there was a yellow flag at the final corner. The marshal was more or less in the middle of the pit lane and I thought it was a yellow flag for the final corner, so I slowed down as a result,” Charles Leclerc said.
The incident came at the end of a weekend in which Ferrari had not found its ideal rhythm at Spa-Francorchamps. The Belgian circuit has presented a demanding challenge for the SF-26, with the team already setting out its expectations ahead of the weekend in its Belgian GP preview with Charles Leclerc.
Ferrari driver does not believe front row was possible
Despite his initial frustration, Charles Leclerc did not believe the yellow flag had cost Ferrari the chance of a front-row start. The Ferrari driver felt the time lost was limited and accepted that fourth place was broadly in line with what the team expected from qualifying.
“I don’t think we would have taken second place. Maybe we would have taken fourth, but it’s fine like that. It’s not that serious. Overall, we could have done a little better. Perhaps I lost eight or nine hundredths in that final corner with the yellow flag, but not much more,” Charles Leclerc added.
Charles Leclerc then offered a realistic assessment of Ferrari’s situation at Spa: “More or less, it is what we expected.”
Ferrari’s focus now turns to converting its second-row starting position into the strongest possible race result. Spa-Francorchamps is set to test tyre management, energy use and overtaking opportunities, subjects that have also been central to Lewis Hamilton’s concerns over battery-driven overtaking ahead of the Belgian GP.
While Charles Leclerc will be disappointed not to have extracted a completely uninterrupted final lap, the Monegasque driver’s own verdict was clear: the yellow-flag confusion did not fundamentally change Ferrari’s realistic qualifying potential.
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