Charles Leclerc admits he 'struggled with tyres at the end' of Imola sprint

Charles Leclerc beat Max Verstappen off the line in the sprint race at Imola, but finished second after being overtaken by the Red Bull driver on the penultimate lap of the race.

Leclerc had looked on course to start from first for the third time this season, but trye degredation towards the end of the 21-lap sprint race cost the Ferrari star, which allowed Verstappen to come back at him.

A poor start from Verstappen handed the lead to Leclerc, but a late move into the first corner on lap 20 secured the win and starting from first tomorrow for the Dutchman.

After the race Leclerc admitted that it was unexpected tyre degredation on his radio once the race ended, which will come as a huge concern for Ferrari. Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz was able to recover from 10th up to fourth meaning he will be able to help Ferrari on the race tomorrow.

What did Leclerc say?

Leclerc revealed that the team "need to analyse" why graining happened on his tyres in the closing stages of a short race.

He told Sky Sports after the race: "It's still a front row start. We struggled with the tyres at the end, so we need to analyse that for tomorrow. The main race is tomorrow. The pace was good and then we had started to have graining on the front left and lost it towards the end. We will come back stronger tomorrow."

Leclerc still leads the Drivers' Championship and has extended his lead at the very front, but has lost one point to Verstappen who moved ahead of Lewis Hamilton into fifth place in the standings following his win.

The Monegasque admitted he misjudged his race slightly: "I pushed hard at the beginning to try and not be vulnerable to Max having the DRS behind and I feel like I paid the price of doing that at the end of the race. So, it felt like they had something more today. We will work on ourselves for tomorrow and try to maximise our package and hopefully the same start as today with less degredation.

"I think today's data will help us make the right decision tomorrow whether we will go for a harder compound [of tyre] tomorrow I am not sure yet but we will check the data and take the right decision."