Sebastian Vettel has claimed Charles Leclerc resulted in his botched final attempt at a run in Q3 having failed to stick to Ferrari's plan.
The four-time world champion was the first of seven drivers not to reach the start/finish line before the chequered flag dropped at the end of qualifying, preventing him from completing a second timed lap.
And in the melee of drivers all trying to get in position for a slipstream, the German admits everything went out of the window.
"I was trying to get through, but there was a McLaren and a Renault blocking the road," Vettel told Sky Sports.
"I'm not happy with how it went, obviously. We didn't make it to get the second attempt like many others, but I thought internally we had a better way that we communicated this.
"I was the one out front alone in the first run and I shouldn't have been the one in front in the second run.
"Because of the last corner I wasn't," he noted as Leclerc moved ahead, "But at that point, it was too close anyways, plus the session was over so I couldn't even make it to start a lap."
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The result is a disappointing fourth place on the grid behind both Mercedes as Leclerc himself took pole.
"I can't be happy with that, it's not what we intended to do," he said.
"He [Leclerc] should've been ahead all the way so… anyways happy with the car, the qualifying was good, the car was very, very good.
"I had a really good lap, I just had no tow so that's the difference between pole and not pole today."
Perhaps Vettel can also be thankful for keeping his original Q3 time with replays suggesting all four wheels did off track at the Parabolica, an area the stewards were watching track limits.
