Charles Leclerc was left disappointed by the outcome of Qatar Sprint Qualifying for Ferrari, with the Monegasque admitting that his P5 result – just behind team mate Carlos Sainz in P4 – is not ideal for the team in what could be a vital weekend for their constructors’ title bid.

The Scuderia had started the day off in what looked to be promising form after Leclerc topped the timesheets in first practice. However, this pace did not look to have continued later on Friday, leaving Leclerc and Sainz unable to beat their McLaren rivals up ahead.

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Asked for his thoughts on the session after appearing to be pushing hard throughout, a downbeat Leclerc reflected: “Not good because when you give it all obviously, and we are only P4 and P5, it’s not great considering how important this weekend is for us.

“But let’s say that for whatever reason FP1 was a lot above our expectations; this I would say is in line with what we expected, so we’re coming back to reality. Obviously after FP1 there were hopes that we could do something better, but we didn’t.”

In terms of whether Ferrari can still challenge McLaren for victory in Saturday’s Sprint, the 27-year-old added: “If we look at FP1, clearly yes; if we look at qualifying, no. For now the most representative is quali, so we are not in the best position. But we never know, it’s always different coming [into] race day.”