Charles Leclerc lamented wet weather preventing him from showing his progress under one-lap conditions during Sprint Qualifying at Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix.
The Monegasque has struggled on low fuel across recent rounds, but a stint in Ferrari’s Maranello simulator had seen him enter the weekend with renewed confidence.
Leclerc delivered on that optimism in the opening two segments as he ended SQ2 one-tenth behind the benchmark pace, but he was unable to replicate that in the rain.
The Ferrari driver was placed on the back foot when he spun on his initial out lap at Turn 6 and endured a touch with the barrier that prompted him to return to the pits.
While he recovered from that minor incident to post the third fastest time, Leclerc slipped to seventh, two places and four tenths behind Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz.
“Yeah, I mean to be honest, the very first out lap was extremely tricky,” Leclerc reviewed. “It was very difficult to switch on the tyres.
“I tried to be a bit aggressive, but obviously I lost it out of Turn 8. That compromised a little bit our quali because then the steering wheel was a little bit bent.
“But all in all, I don’t think there was any miracles. There wasn’t much more we could have done, obviously on my side.
“Again, I didn’t maximise qualifying, which I’m not happy with. If I have to look at the positives, it’s that I think on the dry I did some big steps forward.
“On that, I’m happy because I’ve been working a lot on the preparation of the tyres on the dry and it seems to be paying off for today at least.”
“But let’s see tomorrow. The race will be long.”
Leclerc is relishing the chance to have a second crack at proving he has got on top of his one-lap struggles with Ferrari’s SF-24 car, with drier conditions anticipated.
The truncated Sprint race will take place prior to parc ferme regulations being reopened and permitting set-up changes ahead of the traditional hour-long qualifying.
“I’m looking forward to it, to show,” Leclerc added. “I obviously was looking forward to today to try and show that. But yeah, with the rain in SQ3, I didn’t.
“So we’ll look to tomorrow, try and maximise our Sprint race and then see in the race.”
