Leclerc downbeat after ‘annoying’ lack of pace in Miami Sprint Qualifying as Hamilton admits ‘there is work to do’

Charles Leclerc was left downbeat about Ferrari’s pace struggles after ending Sprint Qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix in P6, with team mate Lewis Hamilton – who will line up in P7 – also acknowledging that that there is “definitely work to do to pick up speed”.

Arriving into the weekend off the back of scoring his maiden podium of the season in Saudi Arabia, Leclerc ended Friday’s sole practice session at the Miami International Autodrome in second place on the timesheets.

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However, the Scuderia were unable to match the likes of Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in Sprint Qualifying, leaving Leclerc disappointed by the final result.

Asked how he was feeling about P6 following the session, the Monegasque answered: “Bad. The lap was good, but the pace is just not at all there for now, so it is a bit annoying.

Pushed on where the big losses had been during Friday’s running, Leclerc added: “It’s every corner really, it’s not like we are particularly weak in one type of corner.

“Yes, the slow speed seems to be a bit more of our weakness, but it changes from one weekend to the other, so it is just not great.”

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Hamilton echoed his team mate’s sentiments about the pace difficulties, though the seven-time World Champion had some positive words about how Sprint Qualifying had unfolded.

“I thought it was a better session,” said Hamilton. “FP1 was a bit better, the car was a bit nicer to drive in FP1 but yeah, we are just lacking speed. [We’ll] just keep working on it from there.”

On whether he expects to be able to make up much ground in Saturday’s Sprint, Hamilton responded: “Not really, I think all the cars ahead are faster. Yeah, not much else to say.”

And in terms of if there are any ideas about what could be done differently ahead of main Qualifying and Sunday’s Grand Prix, the Briton commented: “There are always ideas, whether or not they are going to be right or not, but there [are] definitely learnings to take from today, set-up changes we made and how the car behaved.

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“There is definitely work to do to pick up speed going into the rest of the weekend.”