Sauber's Charles Leclerc came in dead last in Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix, a race in which the French rookie was caught out by his C37 for reasons he has yet to understand.
Leclerc outqualified team mate Marcus Ericsson for the first time this season and showed a good and consistent pace in his opening stint on Pirelli's soft tyres.
Balance issues affecting his Sauber came into play however when he switched over to the medium compound, and led to a spin at Turn 1 that damaged his car's floor.
"It was not an ideal race today. I started on a set of soft tyres. I was quite happy with my pace, and managed to advance to the midfield," said Leclerc.
"Shortly after I changed to the set of medium tyres, I spun into the gravel. I picked up some damage to the floor, and started having some trouble with the balance of the car. Unfortunately, I lost a couple of positions there."
Sauber's post-race analysis of Leclerc's car did indeed conclude that the damage was a result of the mishap, and not its potential cause, as Leclerc initially thought.
"It was very strange because the first three laps I was actually going quicker into this corner," the 20-year-old told Autosport.
"And this lap actually I went slower and lost the rear very unpredictably. I could not see it coming at all. And after that I never managed to reproduce the speed I was doing in all the high-speed corners.
"The rear was just very loose and it was very difficult to drive overall."
Contrary to his team, Marcus Ericsson endured a difficult opening stint but improved his pace thereafter.
"I had a good start today, but lost a few positions after I went slightly off-track in one of the turns.
"Overall, the race had two phases. The first part was on soft tyres; I was struggling quite a bit as the balance did not feel great.
"After changing to the medium tyres, I caught up with the lower midfield and could keep up with their pace. Once we look at the data, we can start our preparations for the next race in Azerbaijan."
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
Jenson Button took the first win of his Formula 1 career on this day in…
George Russell’s battle against Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes is already a daunting challenge on pure…
Williams’ 2026 season was supposed to be the next step in a carefully plotted rebuild.…
Former FIA Formula 2 champion Theo Pourchaire is back in the single-seater saddle, with the…
For much of 2025, the paddock conversation around Sergio Perez was surprisingly straightforward: a driver…
Flavio Briatore is not a man accustomed to standing on the sidelines of victory, nor…