Leclerc admits: 'I didn’t do a great job in terms of driving'

Saturday's qualifying session for the Australian Grand Prix wasn't exactly a highlight for Ferrari, with both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz having reasons to regret their subdued performances in Melbourne.

Sainz will start from fifth place despite believing that a top three grid spot had been on the cards, while Leclerc - who was on pole here 12 months ago - will line up in P7 for Sunday's race.

After battling through the first two rounds, Leclerc benefitted from a tow from his team mate through the middle sector in Q3 - but only after a mix-up meant he had been stuck behind Sainz.

“Q1 and Q2 clearly I wasn’t on it, I wasn’t driving well, I wasn’t putting everything together so that was my fault,” he said afterwards. “Q3 I managed to feel a bit better in the car, quite confident I could put everything together.

“In the first run in Q3, it’s a bit my fault also as when you arrive into Q3 you need to put everything together in whatever laps you do.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know what happened in the second run of Q3 - whether it was a miscommunication with Carlos - but I found myself behind him for the whole of the first sector, which wasn’t great.

Ferrari had sent Leclerc out early for his final run because of fears of more rain showers heading toward the circuit, which left him out of sync with the other drivers - including Sainz, who was himself behind held up.

• Read also: Verstappen on pole in Australia ahead of Russell and Hamilton

"We had a bit of a bad preparation lap in that lap with the tyre temperatures," Sainz explained. “We let by two or three cars we thought were on a push lap, or they told me they were, so I had to slow down a lot to let them by.

"Then [those cars] slowed me down because they were not [on push laps]," he continued. “I lost two, three tenths in sector one for tyre prep, and then I had to risk a lot [through] sector two and three and picked up the pace.

"I did actually a very good lap after that. I think that would have put me in the top three, which would have been good progress and good lap time found from Jeddah."

“We’ll speak at the debrief about that to try and improve those situations," Leclerc said. "We could have optimised it by having better communication, but I also didn’t do a great job today.

"Today I’m not particularly happy with the way I drove," he added, before seeking a silver lining to the session. “To be honest I feel like we are quite competitive, but I just didn’t put everything together.

“From Jeddah to here honestly the feeling is better,” he insisted. “I wouldn’t panic ... I just needed to drive better today, and I think the car wasn’t that bad, the feeling was actually quite good."

Leclerc pointed out that the field was so closely matched today that just two of three tenths had been all it took to go from hero to zero on the grid.

"Let’s see tomorrow whether we improved it. I think part of the changes we’ve done this weekend was to make the race pace better.

"It might have hurt a little bit the predictability in the race, but hopefully we will see some positive signs.

"I think it’s a big question mark tomorrow,” Leclerc suggested. “But the feeling on the few laps I’ve done was quite positive.”

Sainz was also pretty happy with his prospects for tomorrow. "I'm reasonably comfortable. I think we've done some good progress with my feeling with the car," he said.

"We've changed quite a lot, the set-up up and down from yesterday, trying to improve it mainly for the race," he added. I am a lot happier with the car. I’ve done some strong laps, I’ve been pushing quite hard.

"Also, the changes that we have done should go in the right direction for tomorrow.”

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