A devastated Charles Leclerc says he "deserved" to crash out of qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Monegasque had led all three practice sessions and appeared in good shape to make Q3 with a good first lap on the medium compound tyre.

On a second attempt, however, he would lock his brakes into Turn 8 and slid straight into the barrier at the narrowest corner on the calendar.

"I deserve what happened today," Leclerc told Sky Sports. "I am very, very sad for what happened, but I deserved it.

"I have been very stupid, as I said on the radio. I've calmed down but I still think I've been stupid, this does not change."

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Now he faces the challenge of starting from P10 and will be on the medium tyre after his initial time in Q2 did prove sufficiently fast enough.

And in his typical fashion, the 21-year-old was quick to put everything into perspective and look forward.

"Now we will push to learn from this and come back stronger and hopefully we'll have a very good race tomorrow," Leclerc continued.

"I don't want to say anything stupid, but after looking at FP1, FP2, FP3 and Quali 1, pole was possible today and I threw all that potential in the bin, so I'm very disappointed."

Explaining what happened, Leclerc believes he simply misjudged the different tyre compound.

"I just braked as much as I did on the soft, but obviously I was on the medium and I just locked up," he said.

"I don't want it to be misunderstood, there is no problem with the tyres, it's just myself. So I'm very disappointed.

"You can definitely overtake and I will push for that tomorrow, but for the next three or four hours I will be beating myself up."