Disappointment for Charles Leclerc: “I struggled. From the start, I was a step behind Lewis”. Fourth fastest for Charles Leclerc in the China Sprint Qualifying.

Second row
The mood in the Ferrari garage is divided. While Lewis Hamilton’s side is smiling and celebrating the first ‘mini-pole’ for #44, Charles Leclerc cannot be satisfied with his fourth-place finish in SQ3. The Monegasque was two-tenths behind his teammate and was also beaten by Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri. Most notably, Charles Leclerc never seemed able to keep up with Lewis Hamilton in terms of speed in this start of the race weekend at the 5.451-kilometre Shanghai International Circuit.

A step back
“I struggled on my side of the garage,” admitted the #16 Ferrari driver to the official F1 channel microphones. “From the start, I felt a step behind Lewis, who was simply faster today. I struggled a lot in turns 2-3, where I also had issues last year; it’s a bit of a shame. Beyond that, we’re all close. It’s a shame to start from fourth, but Lewis is on pole, and we hope to have a good race together tomorrow. Tire management in FP1? Very difficult. We struggled to get everything in the right window. But in the end, I felt a bit better in qualifying, though not as I would have liked.”

Especially on a Sprint weekend, though, there are still opportunities to redeem himself: “There’s still work to do for tomorrow’s qualifying,” Charles Leclerc continued. “However, the race will be another story. How to reset? First of all, there will be the Sprint race, which I think will be very tricky for the tires, so we’ll have to focus on that. Then we’ll see how the other qualifying sessions go after that.” – the Monegasque driver concluded after qualifying fourth for the Chinese GP Sprint race.