Did Leclerc Crash on Purpose?

There has and always will be people mocking up conspiracies about anything they can think of, and this time Charles Leclerc has handed them one on a platter. The Scuderia team had looked on strong form all weekend and the Monegasque driver was on point today hoping to get his first pole position at his home race in Monaco.

Setting a provisional time of a 1:10.346, Max Verstappen had to gain over 2 tenths to get one up on Leclerc - and it looked like he was going to; setting a personal best in the first portion of his final push lap. But unfortunately for him, Charles came in too early on the apex of turn 15 and clipped his wheel on the armco barrier, causing him to ride swiftly into the wall and bring Q3 to an abrupt red-flagged end.

Had he not been sitting on provisional pole, there would be very little discussion over whether or not the crash was done on purpose. But alas the Formula 1 sceptics have come out in full force, questioning the legitimacy of Charles' pole position.

"HE JUST CLIPPED THE WALL AND ENDED WHERE I ENDED UP TWICE. IT‘S JUST UNFORTUNATE."

MAX VERSTAPPEN

So did Charles decide that he wanted pole position so badly that he would drive 100+ km/h into the wall, damaging his car, risking a gearbox change and 5 place grid penalty? No, probably not.

The man who lost out quite significantly to the red flag has said himself that he doesn't believe it was done on purpose, and infact he has been one to crash there twice before too.

Looking at onboard replays, comparing his usual line through swimming pool, it would take a lot more skill to pull off a believable crash that was done on purpose, than it would to nail the apex and set an even faster lap.

He misjudged his braking point and as a result turned in just a few miliseconds too early and had more grip than he expected, which unfortunately meant tapping the front right against the armco barrier sending him into the wall.

So now the question is whether the team will be able to get the car fully repaired ahead of the Grand Prix tomorrow afternoon, and how much damage was done to the car; if the gearbox ends up needing replaced, that would result in a penalty for Leclerc and his efforts during qualifying were all in vain.