Charles Leclerc reveals mystery issue hurting Ferrari’s straight-line speed

Charles Leclerc has revealed that an issue affecting both Ferrari cars at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix is hurting their straight-line speed performance.

Leclerc finished fifth in the sprint race at Interlagos, moving up three places from his starting position.

The Ferrari driver got ahead of Lance Stroll at the start before settling in behind the second Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.

After a race-long battle, Leclerc finally got ahead with a few laps to go, moving into fifth place.

Ferrari’s lack of straight-line speed was apparent, with Leclerc unable to mount a serious challenge on Alonso until the closing stages.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the sprint on Saturday, Leclerc confirmed that he and Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton are being held back by a mysterious issue with their car.

“This weekend has been very tough. Unfortunately, we have an issue on both cars that we can’t quite explain what’s going on,” Leclerc explained.

“We are losing a lot of lap time on the straight. We have higher downforce than others, but that does not explain the gap that we see on the straights, so something is off.

“I hope we can understand it before qualifying. We are not where we want to be and I don’t think it will be much worse than yesterday.”

Hamilton recovers from SQ2 exit

Hamilton was caught out by double-waved yellow flags in sprint qualifying, leaving him 11th on the grid after being eliminated in SQ2.

The seven-time world champion made a lightning start, running in eighth - just behind his teammate - after the opening lap.

Hamilton was in a promising position initially, starting on the mediums, which would have paid off at the end of the race.

However, the red flag “neutralised” the race, meaning the cars that started on softs could switch to the mediums.

Reflecting on his race, Hamilton said: “I mean I enjoyed the race. It was tricky conditions. I moved forwards. I had a really good start. After that, the red flag neutralised it because I had pretty good pace up until then. Everyone got fresh tyres. It was difficult to overtake. 

“We do have problems with the balance of the car. Our top speed is really so that’s why we can’t overtake. We need to see how we can tackle that into qualifying.”