Charles Leclerc has been given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Daniil Kvyat in Styrian Grand Prix qualifying.
The Monegasque, who missed out on Q3 by just 0.083s behind Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel in 11th in what was a role reversal from last weekend, was judged to the blocked the Russian going through Turn 9 in Q2 and will now start 14th.
It’s the latest setback for Ferrari, who continued to struggle in the wet at the Red Bull Ring, this despite the upgrades the Italian team fast-tracked for this weekend.
“The car, yeah we worked quite a lot on the balance as I had quite a lack of front [end grip] but it got better, I don’t think the balance was a big issue,” Leclerc said commenting on the performance of the SF1000
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“At the end, we were just not quick enough and when I see the gap I am quite surprised so there’s some work to do, the driving definitely could have been better but we have some work to do.
“In the dry, the car is actually very nice to drive in terms of balance, we are just not quick enough and in the wet, it’s very similar.”
The 22-year-old and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen were also investigated for crossing the start/finish line in Q1 after the red flag had been shown for Antonio Giovinazzi, who stopped shortly after hitting the barrier at Turn 9
However, both drivers were cleared of any wrongdoing.
Sergio Perez, who went from the top three in both Friday practices on Friday to 17th in qualifying, also avoided a penalty after being reported for ignoring yellow flags in Q1.
“It’s a big disappointment,” said the Mexican. “You know we were on for a great weekend as we have great pace in the dry, but in the wet, we couldn’t find our rhythm.
“I struggled a lot to generate any tyre temperature. It took me two to three laps to generate the temperature and at the end, I was coming on a good lap but then the red flag stopped that lap. There’s nothing we can do now other than think forward for tomorrow.”
On long run pace, Perez’s Racing Point was one of the fastest cars in practice, and he hopes to use that performance to come back through the field.
“It’s going be difficult to make any progress to overtake, but certainly we have a good car underneath us, so we will try everything,” he said. “I think we’ve done it before, so hopefully we can do it again tomorrow.”
