Charles Leclerc was not sacrificed for Sebastian Vettel during qualifying for Monaco Grand Prix, says Ferrari team boss
Youngster was bumped out of Q1 by his teammate after a major miscalculation from strategists
CHARLES LECLERC was not sacrificed for Sebastian Vettel during qualifying in Ferrari's meltdown in Monaco, says team boss Mattia Binotto.
Vettel was lurking in 17th but in the last lap of Q1 he went fastest which then eliminated Leclerc from the first session.
Leclerc was left seething in the Italian team’s garage as they gambled not to send him out for another run and were instead left red-faced.
When asked if Vettel was prioritised, Binotto said: “No, not at all.
“We have got two full teams, one per driver, so we didn’t compromise at all.
“The strategy was the same exactly for the two drivers.
“On one side we had the necessity to go out and on the other Charles asked from his cockpit, ‘should I go out, I think it’s a bit too marginal and we may be at risk.’
“And we replied to that ‘No, we have got the data’ and believed it would be good enough and it wasn’t.”
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Leclerc will start his home grand prix 16th on the grid while Vettel went on to qualify in fourth.
The 21-year-old driver said: "I asked whether they were sure, they told me, ‘we think we are.’
“I said we should go out again, but there was no real answer.
"I have not had any explanations yet in detail but it is very difficult to take.”
