Charles Leclerc has provided clarificat♒ion as to why he asked Ferrari to give his Formula 1 teammate Sebastian Vettel a hurry up during French Grand Prix qualify𝔍ing.

Leclerc, who had been quicker than Vettel throughout qualifying, was heard twice asking his team to get the Germa♐n to speed up and create a bigger gap between the two drivers.

The M꧋onegasque went on to qualify third and revealed after the session that he was concerned he would not have sufficient time to begin a lap due to being immediately behind Vettel on track.

Asked if he had been compromised by Vetꦛtel, Leclerc insisted: “No, not at all.

"The only thing is that I think twice, I can’t remember when exactly, twice🌞 we were very tight on time throug💃h the finish line.

“So that is why I was🐷 asking the team to say to Seb jꦕust push because I would be very tight. That was the only reason.

“But no, he didn’t compromise my qualifying.”

Leclerc ended up 0.646s adrift of polesitter Lewis Hamilton and said he was hap🍸py with his qualifying performance after working to rectify recent errors he has made.

“I was completely aware that my weak points in the last few grands prix was putting my car in the right window i♒n Q3,” Leclerc explained.

“So I realౠly worked hard for that, and I was ve🐠ry happy to see that there were improvements this weekend on that.

“On that I’m very happy. The gap is still quite big, so we need to ♊work, and hopefully tomorrow it will be an exciting race.

“It’s going to be difficult [to fight Mercedes] because their race pace on Friday was very, very, very stro🐽ng,” he added. “I♌ think a good start will be very important, and then we’ll see what happens.

“But obviously if Iꦛ’m in front at the start, then it will be easier, but it’s not going to be ea🌌sy.”