Leclerc takes defeat to Hamilton on the chin: 'Today he was faster than me'
F1 News
Lewis Hamilton's integration at Ferrari is going remarkably well, with the Briton having taken the first success of the season for Ferrari, ahead of Max Verstappen, both McLaren drivers, but also his teammate, Charles Leclerc, who recognises that the seven-time world champion was just too quick for him today.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Leclerc could do but acknowledged Hamilton's superiority in China. "I struggled on my side of the garage. From the beginning, I felt like I was a step back compared to Lewis and Lewis was just faster today," said the Monegasque after the sprint qualifying session.
Leclerc struggles in a tight field
While Hamilton was in fact able to put his SF-25 on pole for tomorrow's sprint race, Leclerc was on the backfoot and could not recover to match his teammate's performance. "I struggled a lot in Turns 1, 2 and 3, which is more or less the same struggles I had as last year so that's a bit of a shame," added Leclerc, "but apart from that, everything was quite tight."
However, it's not an entirely bad scenario for Leclerc, since despite falling to his teammate, there could be enough speed in the Ferrari to capitalise on starting just behind of Oscar Piastri's McLaren, and two spots ahead of Lando Norris', the rivals Ferrari and himself have to beat if they are to vy for both titles this season. "Obviously a shame we start P4 but Lewis is on pole and hopefully we can have a good race together tomorrow," concluded the Monegasque.