Charles Leclerc’s driveshaft issue that prevented him starting the Monaco Grand Prix may be “completely unrelated” to his crash in qualifying, according to Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto.

Leclerc claimed his first pole since Mexico 2019 on Saturday but crashed at the end of qualifying that saw the session brought to an end.

The impact initially raised concerns that the gearbox may have sustained damage, but an inspection from Ferrari showed “no serious damage” before further checks on Sunday confirmed the all-clear.

But on the lap to the grid Leclerc reported an issue, which was revealed to be a problem with the left driveshaft, leaving him unable to start the race.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Binotto said it was yet to get to the bottom of the issue, and believed it may not be as a consequence of the accident.

“We need to fully understand what happened,” Binotto said.

“The failure is on the driveshaft into the hub on the left-hand side. So it’s not a gearbox problem we had. The gearbox had been inspected yesterday evening, it has been reviewed, and I think the gearbox was OK for the race.

“What happened is on the opposite side compared to the accident. So it may be completely unrelated to the accident.

“But something which we need to carefully understand and analyse, and we have no answer right now.”

Asked if Ferrari had suffered a similar issue previously, Binotto replied: “No. Let’s wait and see. I think we can only analyse the pieces carefully on the data, try to have a clear explanation.”

Leclerc admitted the failure to start from pole position for his home race was “difficult to take” having not won a race since Monza 2019.

Binotto said Ferrari felt confident Leclerc’s gearbox would be given clearance for the race, but insisted the cause for his DNS was not related.

“As I said, it has not been a gearbox failure,” Binotto said.

“There was no gamble on the gearbox. We are confident the gearbox would have been OK for the race.

“But again, what happened needs an explanation, that we do not have right now. As I said, we will need to analyse.”