Leclerc to run back-up Ferrari chassis after Belgian GP practice crash

Charles Leclerc will have a new office on Saturday, after his Ferrari team swapped the Monegasque to the spare chassis for the remainder of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, following his crash on Friday afternoon.

Leclerc lost control of his SF21 and skidded into the Malmedy barriers with 20 minutes to go in FP2, with the red flag thrown into action.

His boss Mattia Binotto described it as a “small mistake” and hoped they could repair the damage in time for FP2. However on Saturday morning, Ferrari said the damage sustained could not “be repaired in a short space of time”.

READ MORE: Leclerc searching for answers after 'tricky' FP2 led to session-ending crash

As a result, the team built up the spare chassis on Friday evening, which Leclerc will use from third practice onwards.

It was a frustrating Friday for Leclerc, who ended the first session fourth fastest but ended the second down in 18th. “P2 didn’t feel great, so we need to understand because we didn’t change much on the car so there’s definitely plenty to understand and hopefully we’ll do a good enough job,” he said.

Final practice begins at 1200 local time, with qualifying following at 1500 local

READ MORE: 5 things we learned from Friday practice for the Belgian GP