More indecisiveness from Ferrari leaves Charles Leclerc 'extremely disappointed'

Not for the first time this season, Ferrari has needed to defend a strategy call, the Scuderia breaking the "golden rule" in Friday's qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix sprint race.

With rain threatening to fall at the Interlagos circuit, Ferrari split their drivers' strategies heading into Q3.

While Carlos Sainz was put on the soft slick Pirellis, Charles Leclerc was given a set of intermediates.

Lining up at the end of the pit lane, he asked Ferrari: "Am I the only one on inters?"

The answer was yes.

A frustrating qualifying for Charles Leclerc and Ferrari ??#BrazilGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/iD4j6Z157i

A 'beautiful' session

The Monégasque driver was, as expected, very slow, but instead of pitting, he stayed out to set a lap time.

He finished qualifying slowest of the Q3 runners, as when he did eventually swap to the intermediates, the red flags were out for George Russell's off.

"Beautiful, fu**ing beautiful," he sarcastically declared.

He told Sky Sports: "We were expecting some rain which never came. I will speak with the team and try to understand what we can do better in those conditions.

"Extremely disappointed. The pace was there, but whatever."

Defending the errors

Ferrari sporting chief Laurent Mekies was left to defend the latest botched strategy call.

While the Frenchman concedes there is a "golden rule" to go for it when the track is dry, Ferrari was wary of the imminent rain.

"It's the sort of qualifying where you need to make a lot of calls," Mekies explained. "Some of the ones made worked, others worked less.

"Altogether, it's a bit frustrating because we got both cars into Q3, and then we were confronted with a tough choice.

"On one hand, you've got a track that is dry, and there's a golden rule that says you should go