Leclerc hit with Spanish GP pit lane start

Charles Leclerc will start the Spanish Grand Prix from the pit lane after a disastrous qualifying session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The Monegasque complained about issues at the rear of his Ferrari en route to qualifying only 19th on the grid for the race, in stark contrast to teammate Carlos Sainz, who reached the front row alongside Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

The Scuderia has opted to change the rear of Leclerc's car whilst sending his previous gearbox back to base in order to investigate the cause of the issues, resulting in a pit lane start.

Ferrari Performance Engineer Jock Clear explained to media, including RacingNews365.com: "Qualifying on the back row has given us the unfortunate opportunity to look at a lot of things.

"He was really uncomfortable with the car straight away in qualifying, was really uncomfortable with the car.

"We have taken the opportunity to change the gearbox – effectively the whole back-end – to make sure there is nothing on there that is untoward.

"We haven't had the opportunity to look at it yet because time doesn't allow you to do that with Parc Fermé as it is.

"The thing for him is he will have a new back-end on the car so that should give him confidence that whatever was not sorted is now sorted.

"As such, he will have to start from the pit lane but he will do that with confidence and, hopefully, we can get him back in the points."