Charles Leclerc reacts to puzzling sprint qualifying drama amid engine issue in Austria SQ3. Charles Leclerc clarifies the problem that prevented him from setting a time in Austria SQ3.

Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc’s inability to set a lap time in the Austrian Grand Prix sprint SQ3 stemmed from an anti-stall issue that caused his SF-24 power unit to cut out.

Charles Leclerc had pulled out of the queue of top 10 runners for sprint qualifying as they gathered at the end of the pit lane, with the clock ticking down at the 4.318-kilometre Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen went on to secure pole position for the first of two races at his team’s home event this weekend.

After moving out of the fast lane, the Monegasque driver managed to restart his SF-24 and got back on track, but he was significantly behind the rest of the pack. This delay meant that by the time he came around to start what would have been his sole SQ3 flying lap, the session had already ended.

As a result, the Ferarri driver was relegated to 10th place as the only SQ3 runner not to set a time. Despite this setback, he described the outcome as “disappointing,” acknowledging that Ferrari was not “super strong” at this circuit.

“I don’t know what happened,” Charles Leclerc replied when asked by the media about what had caused the anti-stall and power unit problem in the pits. “I was in the pitlane and I got the anti-stall and then everything switched off. The team told me that we will speak when I’ll be back in the garage, but obviously I went straight from the car to here so I don’t know.”

When questioned about his potential performance in SQ3, given that his teammate Carlos Sainz finished fifth, Charles Leclerc responded: “: “We weren’t super strong, but definitely better than P10. So, it’s a bit disappointing. But, yeah, we’ll look at what happened and tomorrow we’ll try to have a good sprint race to try and come back in the front.” – the Monegasque driver admitted.

You can listen to the full team radio message of Charles Leclerc after crossing the finish line a second after the red lights had come on to end SQ3, here.