Leclerc: It's a difficult one to take

Leclerc had been set to start on pole, despite crashing in Q3 to bring the session to an end, but came across an issue during the installation lap that prevented him from making the grid.

Max Verstappen, starting in P2, went on to take a comfortable win, with Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz finishing second, ahead of Lando Norris in third.

"In the garage, it was very, very difficult to feel OK," he told Sky Sports F1. "But yeah, I guess now I'm getting used to this feeling here, unfortunately.

"I've never finished a race here. This year I don't start it, starting from pole.

"It's a difficult one to take. But I also feel for the team to be honest, the mechanics have done such a hard job yesterday to try and check everything.

"The mechanics were finally a bit happy this morning to see that everything seems fine, and all of the parts were fine. And then this happened. It's a shame for everyone."

Asked to clarify exactly what the problem was, Leclerc was guarded in his response.

"I wouldn't speak too much, because for now I am not aware of everything," he added.

"But what I know is apparently it's not coming from the gearbox, and it's more coming from the rear left of the car. Whether it's correlated with the crash or not, this we'll have to see with the investigations after the race.

"But it's still early days to speak, I guess."