Leclerc admits Ferrari are “struggling once again this weekend”

Following a tough weekend at Las Vegas, Ferrari appear to struggle for pace at the Lusail International Circuit despite the very different set of conditions,

Ferrari struggled in the only practice session, looking off the pace. Things hardly improved in the sprint qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton having failed to make it out of the first segment.

His team-mate Charles Leclerc did just about make the top 10, but he could not achieve anything better than a ninth place for Saturday’s 19-lap sprint.

“Our qualifying could have been better, and I think that we had the potential to be in the top 5 today.” Leclerc started his assessment. “The car ahead of me slowed down before turn 15 on my final lap, so I couldn’t build enough of a gap and started the lap too close to him.

“It’s part of the game, but it was unfortunate for us. I’ll push in the Sprint race tomorrow and hope to have some good battles."

Pushed on to reveal who held him slightly up, Leclerc added: “The last lap I think [Sainz] was taking quite a significant gap to the car ahead just before Safety Car line 2 and then obviously it puts all the guys behind under stress.”

"He has the right to do that but it's very annoying and it's a but unnecessary sometimes. It's a shame. I had to start the lap too close and when you see the gap between the top five and us, you can say that could have been a better Qualifying.

"But apart from that, we are very slow and we are struggling once again this weekend. It's a tough one again,” concluded Leclerc.