Charles Leclerc claims he’ll have ‘two chances to recover’ in China from Carlos Sainz’s dominant one-lap pace

The star driver of Ferrari, Charles Leclerc, has been overtaken by his teammate Carlos Sainz in the 2024 qualifying battle. Leclerc is well-known for qualifying but the story is quite the opposite for him this year.

F1 is returning to China almost after four years, the last race that took place at the Shanghai circuit was in 2019 before the Covid restrictions. This season, a sprint race has been added to the event and Charles Leclerc believes this is the perfect opportunity for him to make a recovery as he will have two chances to do so.

The 26-year-old has not been performing at his absolute best this year.

As always, I think it's always quite tricky the sprint weekend and you have no room for mistake. But I like this. It's even more of a challenge because qualifying now is a point I need to focus on for putting the tyres in the right window. So I'll have two qualifying [sessions] in Shanghai, two chances to recover.

Charles Leclerc told : Racingnews365

Many believe that unlike his teammate Carlos Sainz, Leclerc highly relies on his pace. The latter might be ahead of his teammate in points, but it’s mostly due to Sainz missing out on a race during the Jeddah weekend. The Spaniard has outshined the Monegasque multiple times this year and this has put the latter in a difficult place. 

Charles Leclerc believes that Red Bull still has the upper hand

Red Bull’s dominance is no surprise, however, Ferrari has somewhat managed to catch up with the Milton Keynes-based team. The Italian outfit is leaving no room for mistakes this year, unlike 2023 where they struggled during the first half of the campaign.

Despite some strong performances by Ferrari, Charles Leclerc believes there isn’t much that has changed, and his team is still the second fastest behind the mighty Bulls.

I don't know, I think the picture will be relatively similar to where it is, where Red Bull still have the upper hand. We are the second best team and then the others, but McLaren wasn't bad, it was really good today and was very close to us, so they are not that far.

Charles Leclerc via: Racingnews365

After four rounds in the 2024 F1 season, Red Bull has so far managed to amass 141 points in comparison to Ferrari’s 120. Keeping this in view, the Maranello-based team could leap-frog the Austrian outfit at the end of the Chinese GP. However, it will be an extremely difficult task keeping in view the might of the RB20.

In case you missed it:

• Martin Brundle deems Carlos Sainz’ potential Red Bull move a ‘no-brainer’
• “Still in the mix,” Carlos Sainz names three tracks where Ferrari could match Max Verstappen and Red Bull

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