‘Lewis was just faster today’ laments Ferrari driver Leclerc as he reveals cause of Sprint Qualifying struggles in China

Charles Leclerc was hampered by similar limitations to the ones he experienced 12 months ago in China as he qualified fourth for the Sprint.

Leclerc was unable to challenge his pole-winning team mate Lewis Hamilton in Sprint Qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.

READ MORE: Hamilton left ‘gobsmacked’ after ‘incredible’ Sprint Qualifying pole in China

Although the session was a marked improvement on Qualifying in Australia last week – when he wound up P7 on the grid despite a strong Friday – the fact that he had fallen 0.208s shy of his team mate in Shanghai left Leclerc focused on where he had missed out.

“I’ve struggled on my side of the garage,” he said. “From the beginning, I’ve felt like I was a step back compared to Lewis and he was just faster today. I struggled a lot in Turn 1, 2, 3, which was more or less the same struggles that I had last year. Apart from that, everything was quite tight.

“It’s a shame that we start in P4 but Lewis is on pole and hopefully we can have a good race together tomorrow.”

Drivers up and down the pit lane had been vocal on the difficulty of keeping the tyres within the working window, with overheating a major concern as heat builds in the long radius right-handers of Turns 1, 2, 12 and 13.

READ MORE: Hamilton charges to pole over Verstappen and Piastri during Sprint Qualifying thriller in China

“We really struggled to put everything in the right window but at the end of the day, it felt a little bit better in [Sprint] Qualifying, but not where I wanted it to be,” explained Leclerc.

“Still some work to do for Qualifying tomorrow, however, in the race it is another story and we will only see this tomorrow.”

While not challenging at the front in Australia, Ferrari had been set to score solid points before the drivers fell down the order late in the race as conditions worsened.

Assessing his chances in the race, Leclerc added: “First we have a Sprint race which I think will be very tricky around here with the tyres, so we’ve got to focus on that and then we will see about Qualifying later on.”