Charles Leclerc breaks his silence after first defeat to Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari

Charles Leclerc conceded that Lewis Hamilton has just been faster than him during the F1 Chinese GP as the British driver secured pole position for the sprint on Saturday. The sprint shootout was very interesting, as from SQ1 onwards it was clear that the 7x champion had the edge over his teammate.

Lewis Hamilton has often had a strong run at the F1 Chinese GP anyway. Even in 2024, he had secured a front-row start for the sprint in his Mercedes. Coming into the weekend, however, the 7x champion was on the back foot. The first race of the season had not been ideal, and there had been suggestions from a lot of pundits that the driver was taking some time to get used to the car.

Coming into the second race of the season, not many expected this from Lewis Hamilton, and hence it comes as a surprise. Charles Leclerc, on his part, trailed his teammate throughout the session. In the end, by the time the chequered flag fell, he was only P4, while his Ferrari stablemate starts the sprint on pole.

Talking to Sky Sports after the session, Charles Leclerc claimed that he was just slower than Lewis Hamilton. He said,

"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."

Lewis Hamilton's reaction to pole and beating Charles Leclerc

Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, was himself surprised to secure pole position for Ferrari. The driver had been fast in all three qualifying sessions, but McLaren appeared to have the edge. In the end, it came down to the final laps, and the 7x champion was able to pull out a lap that was less than a tenth faster than both Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri.

Charles Leclerc was 2 tenths behind and qualified in P4. Talking to Sky Sports, Hamilton expressed surprise at securing pole position as he said,

"I'm just a bit gobsmacked, taken back by it. I didn't know when we would get to this position. After last weekend, it was a difficult start to the week. We came here with aggression and wanting to go into the weekend and get the car into a great place."

He added,

"I started out straight away with a better feeling in the car. I can't believe we are at the front, ahead of a McLaren which has been so fast throughout winter testing, Australia and even today. I'm really grateful to be up there with these great drivers and be so close to all these other teams."

With both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on the top 2 rows, it would be interesting to see how Ferrari does in the sprint.