Leclerc spun in outlap: 'Trying to be aggressive'

Charles Leclerc drove the seventh fastest time during the sprint shootout on Friday. The Ferrari driver may have been lucky with that too, as things could have ended differently for the Monegasque. Leclerc lost control of his car after exiting the pit lane at the Shanghai International Circuit.

"The very first out lap was extremely tricky, and it was very difficult to switch on the tyres," Leclerc told Viaplay after the end of the sprint shootout. "I tried to be a bit aggressive but obviously I lost it out of turn 8. That compromised our quali because then the steering wheel was a little bit bent."

Not the maximum for Leclerc

Leclerc will start from the fourth row of the grid in the sprint race. "All in all I don't think there was any miracles. There wasn't much more we could have done. Obviously on my side again I didn't maximise qualifying which I'm not happy with," he said. Once again, in fact, team-mate Carlos Sainz is ahead of him. The Spaniard was just under four tenths faster on his fastest lap in SQ3.

"If I have to look at the positives it's that I think on the dry I did some big steps forward and on that I'm happy because I've been working a lot on the preparation of the tyres on the dry and it seems to be paying off for today at least. But let's see tomorrow, the race will be longer," Leclerc said.