Leclerc: Qualifying performance reflects Ferrari’s ‘true pace’

Charles Leclerc offered a rather sobering assessment of Ferrari’s current performance level after a challenging qualifying session in Shanghai.

The Monegasque driver believes that the team’s starting positions for the Chinese Grand Prix accurately reflect the true pace of the Scuderia’s SF25.

After Lewis Hamilton's unexpected pole and subsequent sprint race triumph on Saturday, Ferrari's momentum appeared promising.

However, neither the seven-time world champion nor Leclerc could replicate that form in qualifying, with Hamilton starting fifth and Leclerc alongside him in sixth. Despite the apparent step back, Leclerc feels the result is an accurate depiction of Ferrari’s competitive standing.

Assessing the Car’s Potential

Reflecting on Saturday’s qualifying session, Leclerc believes the roughly three-tenths gap to the front-runners in Shanghai mirrors Ferrari’s true pace.

“This afternoon I think the potential was just not there,” he told the media.

“The overall grip was just not there, and I think in Australia I felt like we didn't do a great job in qualifying, and we were further away than what 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. Apart from [the fact that] Lewis did a great, great job yesterday, but I feel like today I did a good job. I

“I'm sure Lewis did a good job as well and that's the potential of the car,” Leclerc added. “Is there a little bit more in the car? Maybe. Three tenths, I don’t think so. But we need to look forward to tomorrow.”

Sprint Struggles and Race Hopes

Leclerc’s sprint race saw him drop from fourth to fifth, overtaken by George Russell and hampered by dirty air.

“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 quali,” he said.

“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.”

Starting fifth and sixth, Leclerc reckons that overtaking on Sunday will be challenging.

“This is going to be a bit tricky because, starting P5 and P6, we've got quite a few cars in front, so to find free air is never easy,” he said.

“But we'll try our best and hopefully our race pace is better than the guys around.”

• Read also: Hamilton working on ‘master plan’ for Shanghai win

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