There was great disappointment for Charles Leclerc after seeing his hopes of a strong first Monaco GP dashed by brake failure less than 10 laps from the finish.
The Sauber driver had been enjoying a solid first Formula 1 weekend at his home race running just outside the points until he would have nowhere to go but into the back of Brendon Hartley exiting the tunnel taking both drivers out.
A puff of brake dust as he tried to slow down for the chicane indicated what had occurred but the Monegasque admitted it had been an issue which he had been facing for quite some time.
“I felt like the pedal was getting very, very long of the brakes,” he explained. “It was very inconsistent.
“Even putting the same amount of brakes on the pedal, it was really like ‘not decelerating and then decelerating. It was very difficult to manage and at one point they just gave up.”
The stewards would exonerate the 20-year-old from any blame due to the failure and Hartley also accepted he was just a victim of circumstances.
“Charles and I spoke afterwards and he said he lost the brakes. It’s pretty frustrating, but that’s Monaco,” said the Kiwi.
“We were strong all weekend apart from Q1, where we didn’t get it all together. I was happy with how I was driving today but ultimately it wasn’t meant to be.”
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It was also an unfortunate end to a strong run of results for Leclerc, who was looking to become the first driver to score in three straight races for Sauber since 2015, and also continued a run of bad luck in Monte Carlo.
“It’s a shame it happens at home. Last year in Formula 2 I couldn’t finalise it either, and again this year it’s not possible. So it’s a little bit frustrating,” he conceded.
“But in the end I think we’ve had a very positive weekend overall and this is to remember for the rest of the weekend.
“The race pace we were very strong, it was just frustrating for us because it was impossible to overtake. Brendon was slowing us down to that Pierre [Gasly] could exit his pit stop ahead of us.
“It’ a shame, but again our pace was really good. Our quali pace was also better than expected with another third Q2 in a row, so it’s looking positive for the future.”
