Why F1 rivals insisted Leclerc keeping his Monaco pole was fair

The Ferrari driver stormed to a sensational shock pole at his home race but went on to crash on his last run of qualifying, slamming into the barriers on the exit of the Swimming Pool section after getting the corner wrong.

His accident caused a red flag which ruined the final Q3 efforts of all the drivers behind him on track.

That included Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas and his own Ferrari teammate, Carlos Sainz.

Verstappen had been on course for a shot at pole having set the best first sector time of anyone, only to be forced to abort his lap due to the red flags, much to the Dutchman’s annoyance.

Bottas was also improving on his second timed effort, while Sainz felt he had enough pace to join Leclerc on the front row had he been able to finish his lap.

Leclerc’s crash evoked memories of Michael Schumacher’s infamous qualifying antics of 2006 when he deliberately parked his Ferrari at Rascasse in a bid to prevent arch rival Fernando Alonso from taking pole. Schumacher was later disqualified from qualifying and demoted to the back of the grid.

Eight years later Nico Rosberg avoided a penalty when he appeared to lose control of his car and steered down the escape road at Mirabeau one lap after setting the fastest time. The incident triggered yellow flags and denied Mercedes teammate Hamilton the chance of taking pole.

There was less suspicion surrounding the circumstances of Leclerc’s crash, given it resulted in significant damage to his car.

“Well, I think there’s a difference when a guy makes a mistake and hits the wall, or does it intentionally,” said Verstappen.

“I think if Charles would have just parked with a broken front wing it’s a different story.

“But, of course, he just clipped the wall initially and then ended up where I’ve ended up twice!

“So, it’s just unfortunate. Of course, I’m disappointed not to have a shot at pole, but that’s life. Sometimes we can’t do it and it’s fine.”

And Leclerc was quick to deny any suggestions that he purposely crashed his Ferrari to secure pole.

“Surely, if I was doing it on purpose, I would have made sure to hit the wall a bit less hard,” he said. “But that wasn’t on purpose, obviously. I was pushing the limit.

“As Max said on a city track like this where we are pushing the limit, it happens to do mistake. It’s a different story when it’s done on purpose. But I think it’s pretty obvious for today.”

Unlike F1, IndyCar has a rule that penalises drivers who cause a red flag by deleting their best two lap times.

But Leclerc’s closest two rivals believe the Ferrari driver was right to keep pole for the Monaco GP.

“I don’t think his lap should be deleted in the future if they want to make a rule change,” Verstappen added.

“I don’t think that would be fair, because we’re all trying so hard and it’s not so easy around here, especially on the limit. It’s easy to make a mistake.”

Meanwhile, Bottas said: “The regulation is fine. It’s what it is.

“Sometimes in sport things don’t play into your hands and sometimes you get lucky and not unlucky. That’s what happens.”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff also doubted that Leclerc’s accident was deliberate.

“I think like all of the incidents that we’ve seen in the past at Monaco, only the driver will ever know what exactly happened,” he said.

"In that case I doubt that Charles would make himself detonate in the rail, which could cause even more damage to his car. Gearbox damage is possible, we think that probably we wouldn’t have had it, but it is what it is.

“It’s a good story that Charles is on pole in Monaco. It’s even better that Charles is on pole than Max, but I don’t want to go that far.”

However, Wolff reckons that implementing an IndyCar-style lap deletion rule would be an “intelligent” move for F1 to definitively rule out such question marks in future.

“I didn’t know that was the rule in the US but I think it’s an intelligent rule that would avoid confusion,” he said.

“By any means, I don’t think that Charles put it in the wall [deliberately] today because there’s just too much at stake.

“But it would be a nice little incentive to make sure that the polemic that such a situation provokes is out of the question, is not happening because nobody would doubt it.”

Leclerc could yet lose his pole should his gearbox need changing, something that would see him pick up a five-place grid drop.

Ferrari revealed on Saturday evening that initial checks showed there was no “serious damage”, but stressed a final call would be made on Sunday before the race.