Charles Leclerc reveals recurring China issues: "Same struggles as last year"

Charles Leclerc's new Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton secured pole position for the Chinese sprint race, whereas, the Monegasque driver will start from fourth.

Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc has revealed where he "struggled" during sprint qualifying in China.

While the Monegasque driver's new team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, celebrated his first pole position with the team, Leclerc revealed that issues in Turns 1-3 were part of the reason for his fourth-place start in tomorrow's sprint race.

Leclerc explained to the media that he was suffering from the same issues he had experienced at the Shanghai International Circuit in 2024:

"I struggled on my side of the garage. From the beginning, I felt like I was a step back compared to Lewis and Lewis was just faster today.

"I struggled a lot in Turns 1, 2 and 3, which is more or less the same struggles I had as last year so that's a bit of a shame but apart from that, everything was quite tight.

"Obviously a shame we start P4 but Lewis is on pole and hopefully we can have a good race together tomorrow."

To add to his woes, Leclerc has since been summoned to the stewards for allegedly exceeding the maximum time delta between Safety Car lines. The FIA statement read as follows:

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

"Alleged breach of Article 33.4 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations and Article 12.2.1 i) of the FIA International Sporting Code (non-compliance with the Race Director’s Event Notes, item 2, document 11)."

Article 33.4 of the sporting regulations states:

"At no time may a car be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person."

At the time of writing, the stewards had not reached a verdict.

Hamilton will be joined on the front row in the sprint race by Red Bull's Max Verstappen. Oscar Piastri will start third, with Leclerc alongside in fourth. The third row features George Russell in fifth and Lando Norris in sixth.

As the first sprint race weekend of the year, Leclerc has another opportunity to move up the grid tomorrow as the sprint race takes place in the morning followed by qualifying in the afternoon to determine the start for the Grand Prix on Sunday.