F1 News
Leclerc remains realistic about gap to McLaren: 'We expected this'
Charles Leclerc has once again finished behind Lewis Hamilton at the Chinese Grand Prix, this time, in Qualifying. The Monegasque driver talked about his team's performance, and explained what will be important in terms of this Sunday's Grand Prix.
"This afternoon [in qualifying] the potential was just not there," Leclerc began to Sky Sports after qualifying at the Shanghai International Circuit. "The overall grip was just not there."
He also believes this is the current gap Ferrari have to McLaren. "In Australia I felt like we didn't do a great job in qualifying and we were further away than we thought but if we had put everything together I think we were expecting to be three tenths off. I think these three tenths that we see today are generally where we are," he continued, explaining there is not much more in the SF-25.
Ferrari need this according to Leclerc
Lewis Hamilton managed to win the Sprint earlier this Saturday, while Leclerc finished in P5 after a battle with George Russell. The driver was relatively satisfied race pace after that shorter. "This morning we had good pace in the car, especially towards the end of the stint. But being in dirty air is always trickier, so I had wished for a better qualifying."
He also underlined the importance of keeping the tyres alive, simlarly to many others on the grid. "The tyre management looked good, but we need to be careful, because on my side, I was struggling a lot being in dirty air. Lewis had really good pace in free air, we just need to try and find free air from where we start. And this is going to be a bit tricky because [we are] starting P5 and P6," the Ferrari driver explained. Starting ahead of the two Ferraris on Sunday will be the two McLarens, George Russell and Max Verstappen.
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