Charles Leclerc's Engine Switched Off During Intense Q1 Push Ahead of Las Vegas Grand Prix

Ferrari's woes continued as a surprise wet qualifying session on Friday night saw one of their drivers qualify P20 for the first time since 2009, while the other had to make a massive save to avoid the barriers.

Lewis Hamilton, unaware that he was in the drop zone, was on his final flying lap on wet tires in Q1 when the only major incident of qualifying played out ahead of him. Alex Albon ended up in the wall in turn 16. The yellow flag was removed moments before Hamilton made it to the corner with the Ferrari driver already slowing.

Hamilton was already off his pace, and Albon's crash was the nail in the coffin of Hamilton's hopes to make it to the next round of qualifying.

Both Hamilton and his teammate, Charles Leclerc, showed speed in all three free practices leading up to qualifying, but the surprise conditions ruined the party.

While Leclerc was able to make it out of Q1 and ultimately to Q3 to qualify ninth, a lock-up and slide also in turn 16 nearly ended his chances at the end of the first qualifying session.

While saving the slide, Leclerc's engine shut down.

Leclerc told his pit wall over the radio that he had no grip and the car's lack of speed was 'f**king embarrassing'.

"F***ing embarrassing," Leclerc radioed. "F***ing hell. I don’t get how we can be so off the pace. There is like zero grip. Zero f***ing grip."

After the race, Leclerc told the media that, while the team is trying every week, wet-weather performance has been lacking at the Italian team since he joined, adding that his former stellar performance in juniors makes it even more disappointing that he can't put together a decent wet qualifying lap with his F1 team of six seasons.

"It’s not a fault that we are not trying," Leclerc said. "We’ve been trying like crazy, but it just doesn’t work, and it’s very, very frustrating, because it’s been probably my biggest strength in the junior categories coming up, and we are just struggling like crazy. Whenever it’s wet, the tires don’t switch on, and we just have a very, very poor grip."

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