Leclerc qualified third for Saturday's Sprint before finishing second in that race, showing Ferrari did indeed have the pace to mix with Mercedes and McLaren.
But as conditions cooled for Qualifying, neither Scuderia driver could extract the same sort of pace.
Instead, Hamilton qualified fifth and Leclerc sixth.
Leclerc actually got the better start and was running ahead of his team mate, but Hamilton wound up jumping ahead courtesy of a different tyre strategy.
Our main limitation was probably our starting position, so we have to review and understand where we can improve our qualifying pace.”
Leclerc qualified third for Saturday's Sprint before finishing second in that race, showing Ferrari did indeed have the pace to mix with Mercedes and McLaren. But as conditions cooled for Qualifying, neither Scuderia driver could extract the same sort of pace.
Instead, Hamilton qualified fifth and Leclerc sixth. Leclerc actually got the better start and was running ahead of his team mate, but Hamilton wound up jumping ahead courtesy of a different tyre strategy.
There were a few terse messages on the radio between the Ferrari drivers and the pit wall, with Hamilton on fresher tyres asking to be let by his team mate – something the team solved by pitting Leclerc. But while that decision at the time seemed to annoy the Monegasque driver, he was still able to find some positives after the race.
"Our pace was strong, and I believed in it until the very end because we weren’t that far off George… We did a good job with tyre management and I enjoyed the overtake on Oscar [Piastri]. Our main limitation was probably our starting position, so we have to review and understand where we can improve our qualifying pace.”
