Chinese Grand Prix: the battleground between Leclerc and Sainz

Charles Leclerc, starting seventh on the grid for the sprint race, finished fourth this Saturday in China behind big players such as Verstappen, Hamilton, and Perez. The Monegasque driver still brought five points to the team, but the most challenging part was the battle with his own teammate, Carlos Sainz.

After overtaking the poleman, Lando Norris who made a mistake right at the first turn, Leclerc gains a position. At mid-race, in sixth position, the Scuderia driver decides to attack and go head-to-head with his teammate. Carlos Sainz was already on the attack in a fierce battle with the Aston Martin driver, Fernando Alonso. Once the latter was out of the way, he made things a bit difficult for Leclerc and gave him a challenging time to secure this fourth place. The Monegasque driver gets the points.

« Honestly, it’s a positive race,” he declared at the finish line to Canal+’s microphone, even though he started the race with more worn tires than Sainz. « We wanted to keep maximum flexibility for tomorrow’s race,” the Monegasque justifies. « We thought about sacrificing this race a bit to prioritize tomorrow’s strategy and to have all possible options and try to have the best race possible,” he adds.

A situation to clarify

A good race, some points but it is essential for the Ferrari driver to clarify the situation on the track with his teammate. Ferrari remains a team and the two drivers must not fight on the circuit.

« The performance was rather good today. It’s a little bit of a shame that we sometimes fight more amongst ourselves than with others, but that’s how it is. It’s also fair play, there have been others; other times when it was the opposite. Today, perhaps it was beyond the limit but I think Carlos knows it, as I knew when I exaggerated. We will discuss and it will be okay for tomorrow », he confides, still speaking to Canal+ microphone.

Leclerc surprised by McLaren during Sunday’s race

Starting from sixth place on the grid, the Ferrari driver finished fourth this Sunday at the Shanghai circuit. Just off the podium, the Monegasque driver did not ensure a good start. He also struggled to handle the safety car and was hindered by his teammate Carlos Sainz. Following a tire change, the driver admitted that he was no longer able to fight for the podium and aim for the Top 3.

« We were on a good strategy but with the safety car, it put everyone on the same strategy. We had a lot more difficulties on the hard tires than we thought. McLaren was very fast on hard tires too. The podium was still possible on the mediums but I quickly understood that it wasn’t going to be possible. I was looking to the right, I saw a car on the left but I didn’t understand who it was », Leclerc confided to Canal+ microphones at the end of the race.