Hamilton made difference for Ferrari as improvements identified: Leclerc

Charles Leclerc believes teammate Lewis Hamilton outperformed the Ferrari car en route to victory in the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix sprint.

The seven-time champion secured pole position for the shortened event at the Shanghai International Circuit, going on to dominate and secure a first 'win' for the Scuderia.

Yet in the grand prix, both Hamilton and Leclerc failed to make inroads on the top three and instead had to settle for fifth and sixth, only to be disqualified post-race for technical infringements.

That followed an Australian Grand Prix where neither driver threatened to the McLarens or George Russell's Mercedes and Max Verstappen's Red Bull before dropping to the tail of the top 10 through poor strategy as rain fell.

Asked why Ferrari's pace was hard to explain in China given the different results, Leclerc replied: "I won't go into specific details, we start to understand this car and have some kind of ideas of where we are lacking.

"I think in Australia, it was quite well understood. In China, Lewis did an outstanding job on Friday when maybe drivers didn't put everything together in qualifying and he managed to put everything together and managed to outperform the car a little bit, I believe.

"With tyre degradation being a big thing, when you start in front, everything is coming towards you a little bit more.

"But I think Lewis made the difference on Friday and Saturday in China.

"In second qualifying, everyone is a bit more up to pace and we saw more the real pace of the car and where we are lacking."

'Similar to last year'

Ferrari's form last season saw it fast in race trim but struggle in qualifying, with Leclerc himself often outperforming the true pace of the car.

And the Monegasque conceded: "I think very similar to last year, we have a very good car in terms of race pace that we couldn't really show until now because whenever you start in the middle of the pack, degradation is a lot worse, you cannot show your real pace and that's what happened a little bit on Sunday in China.

"So I think the pace is still as good as what we've shown on the Saturday with Lewis. However, we cannot use it if we don't have a better qualifying pace.

"If I take a step back, that is where we need to improve. It was also the case last year and this year it seems to be even more the case, so we have got to work on that."

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