Charles Leclerc: In the final I attacked harder than usual

Charles Leclerc crashed his car in turn 9 of the qualifying final of the Dutch Grand Prix and was ninth on the session sheet. His Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz qualified sixth and admitted five teams are ahead of the Scuderia this weekend at sheer speed.

Charles Leclerc (9th): “First of all, it has to be said that we have had balance issues all weekend – the car has massive understeer, massive oversteer, which makes it very difficult to predict how the SF-75 will behave in a turn . All weekend the front of the car has been behaving strangely.

In qualifying I tried to attack a little harder than usual, but in the final my approach didn’t work. It’s a pity that it happened, but we’ve had serious problems all weekend, not least because it’s not possible to get the necessary grip.

My job is to get results even in difficult conditions, and today was particularly difficult. Either way, it’s a shame it ended like this.”

Carlos Sainz (6th): “From the very beginning of the weekend we have been lagging behind. I missed the first practice, the third was on a wet track and in the qualifying final it was dry again. It was definitely a tough weekend for me, but I couldn’t manage to put in a good enough lap to finish sixth.

Williams, McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and Aston Martin are faster than us this weekend. Today we made fewer mistakes, so we went to the final, but in terms of sheer speed they are faster than us. If nothing unusual happens during the race, we will do everything we can to keep sixth place. Perhaps a good start will bring back some places, but we have a difficult weekend.

The Oscar Piastri Incident? They did not tell me on the radio that he was approaching from behind, and in the shroud of splashing water I simply did not see him myself. It’s a difficult situation, but I hope the stewards put things right and everything will be fine.”