Charles Leclerc reveals anti-stall led to bizarre pit lane issue in F1 sprint qualifying

Charles Leclerc has revealed that his F1 engine got shut off when he went into anti-stall during the final minutes of sprint qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix.

In what was a bizarre moment, Leclerc’s Ferrari was stationary in the pit lane as he tried to leave the Ferrari garage.

He managed to get going again but it was too late as he failed to cross the start-finish line in time.

This meant Leclerc was unable to set a lap at the end of the session, leaving him 10th on the grid for the sprint.

In an exchange with Ferrari race engineer Bryan Bozzi, Leclerc didn’t understand why the anti-stall caused his car to switch off entirely.

Leclerc: “What the hell happened guys?”

Bozzi: “We took the anti-stall?”

Leclerc: “Thank you but the anti-stall can’t stop the engine. The engine switched off. I don’t know if you noticed. There was no engine. The ignition went to off so I had to re-do the whole thing.”

Bozzi: “Copy, box, we will talk about it inside the garage.”

Speaking after the session, Leclerc was still not entirely sure on what led to the issue.

“I don’t know what happened,” he explained. “I was in the pit lane and I got the anti-stall, and everything switched off. 

“The team told me we will speak when I will be back in the garage. I don’t know.”

Looking ahead to the sprint, he added: “We weren’t super strong but definitely better than P10. It’s a bit disappointing. 

“We will look at what happened and tomorrow we will try to have a good sprint race to come back to the front.”