"It’s part of the game" - Charles Leclerc insists everything is fine between him and Carlos Sainz after Ferrari duo’s battle in Chinese GP sprint

Charles Leclerc claimed everything has been sorted out with Carlos Sainz after the sprint race tussle at the Chinese GP. Speaking to media including Sportskeeda, the Ferrari driver revealed that the duo had a chat with Fred Vasseur after the qualifying session and were able to resolve their issues.

In the sprint race, Charles Leclerc was forced off-track by his own teammate which cost both of them positions in the sprint. Sainz told the media including Sportskeeda on Saturday that he would resolve the situation with Leclerc after the qualifying sprint. The Spaniard also explained that he was unable to turn which made him unintentionally force his teammate outside.

Leclerc later claimed that the issue was resolved but did not want to comment on the details. Fred Vasseur reportedly had a conversation with both drivers to avoid such incidents in the future.

Charles Leclerc said:

“Yeah, no, no, we spoke briefly before the sprint race and much longer after the, Sorry, briefly before qualifying and much longer after qualifying with Fred and everything is fine."

When asked about Sainz’s explanation where he said he couldn’t turn in and move out of the way, Leclerc said:

“Yeah, I'm not going into details, but as I said, sometimes I went over the limit, sometimes he went over the limit and it's part of the game, and now we've had a discussion and it's like that.”

Sainz earlier spoke to the media after the race and when he was asked about the battle with Charles Leclerc, he said:

“I’d prefer not to comment, but it’s obviously quite clear that it cost us both positions. So yeah, it didn’t help either of us.”

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Charles Leclerc baffled with the pace deficit on the hard tire in China

Charles Leclerc believes the hard tire let them down at the Chinese GP. Battling Lando Norris in the McLaren, Leclerc was initially optimistic about his chances of a strong points finish.

However, the final stint on the hard tire to the finish line was slow according to the Ferrari driver. Surprised at the reasons behind the drop in pace, Leclerc felt they were at least half a second slower on the hard compound tire.

Most drivers who spoke to the media including Sportskeeda after the race claimed they were affected by the cooling ambient and track conditions which did not make it easier to optimize their temperatures and extract performance.

Charles Leclerc believes the drop in performance was not connected to the abrasive track surface of the Shanghai International Circuit. He felt they struggled more than they expected on the tires. However, his teammate Sainz had expected them to have a tricky race, particularly with the hard tire compound.

Explaining to Sportskeeda the pace deficit in the race, Charles Leclerc said:

“I don't know, but I didn't find it. I don't think we found it as a team, especially on the hard tires, which is a bit strange, because the strength of this cast is at the beginning of the year, that it's very solid in all conditions with all tires. Today is a bit of an outlier, because as soon as we put the hard we were half a second off, so that is very strange. We'll look into it and try to understand what went wrong on that run."

Asked if the track surface was responsible for the drop in pace on the hard tire, he said:

“No, because it cannot be for the layout. because a compound doesn't work on one layout and then you go on a hard and then you are slow. So it's very strange, especially compared to the McLaren, because with Lando at first I really thought we were going to fight with him, I was doing a good tire management until the safety car that we set a little bit, all strategies which is a bit of a shame because I think we were doing a good job, but then on the hard we were just slow.”

Asked if he understood what the reason was, Charles Leclerc replied:

“Not really yet, but we'll look into it. I think we were expecting this weekend to be very similar or in line with whatever we had seen since the beginning of the season, but we were struggling quite a bit more.”

Charles Leclerc finished fourth but did not have enough pace to finish ahead of Norris or the Red Bull drivers. He finished ahead of his teammate for the second time this season after being able to turn around some of his early-season performance slump.

Despite Sainz claiming a win in Australia, the 25-year-old still leads the Ferrari driver lineup with 76 points and a seven-point margin over Sainz in the drivers standings. He is currently third after being recently overtaken by Sergio Perez.

Ferrari is in second place in the championship with a total of 151 points, 44 points behind Red Bull. The Maranello squad is expected to schedule some massive upgrades on their car in Miami, which could help them chase the lead.