Leclerc reveals technical issues after his suboptimal sprint qualifying result

Charles Leclerc endured a frustrating Sprint Qualifying session in Shanghai, with the Ferrari driver left ruing an unexpected loss of power on his final flying lap that cost him valuable time on the long back straight.

After showing strong pace earlier in the session—setting the third-fastest time in SQ2—Leclerc ultimately slipped to sixth in the decisive SQ3 phase.

Reflecting on the setback, Leclerc did not hide his disappointment. “First the toggle, then unfortunately when I had a good lap, I lost half a second in the back straight for whatever reason – on the second lap in SQ3,” he explained. “We’ll analyse that and try to understand what’s gone wrong.”

Ferrari had brought wing adjustments to Shanghai, but Leclerc admitted that the changes did little to alter the competitive picture relative to the front-runners. While he expects the team to be more competitive in race trim, he acknowledged that Mercedes currently hold a clear advantage.

“I mean, it doesn’t really change the picture from where we are,” he said when asked about the updated rear wing. “I think in the race we should be relatively a bit stronger than where we were now in Sprint Qualifying, however Mercedes seems to be still a step ahead.”

Leclerc also pointed to a recurring trend he has noticed throughout the season: Mercedes finding a significant performance boost in qualifying conditions.

“In Qualifying, for some reason the Mercedes power unit finds a lot of lap time. We don’t quite find that amount of lap time just yet in Qualifying, but in the race we are closer, so I’m still hopeful we can come back tomorrow.”

Summing up his session, Leclerc reiterated how costly the straight-line time loss had been. “It wasn’t a great session. Unfortunately, I lost half a second on the back straight on my second lap in SQ3, and we will have to analyse the reason for that to make sure we can come back tomorrow.

"We should be a bit stronger in the Sprint race than we were today, however, the front runners still seem to be a step ahead, so we will see what we can do to challenge them.”