Leclerc concedes Ferrari 'struggling once again' in Qatar as he laments Sprint Qualifying showing

Charles Leclerc has said Ferrari are "struggling once again this weekend" having only qualified ninth for the Qatar Sprint, while team mate Lewis Hamilton was P18 on a difficult Friday.

The Monegasque driver struggled for pace around the Lusail International Circuit, finishing only eighth in the single one-hour Free Practice session ahead of Sprint Qualifying.

While team mate Hamilton was unable to progress beyond the opening segment of Qualifying, Leclerc managed to reach SQ3 and posted a lap good enough for ninth on the grid ahead of Saturday's 19-lap Sprint.

The Ferrari driver admitted that while a preparation lap for Carlos Sainz's Williams ahead was far from ideal, it ultimately didn't make a significant difference when compared with the leading pace of the McLaren pair and George Russell's Mercedes.

"The last lap I think [Sainz] was taking quite a significant gap to the car ahead just before Safety Car line 2 and then obviously it puts all the guys behind under stress," said Leclerc.

"He has the right to do that but it's very annoying and it's a but unnecessary sometimes. It's a shame.

"I had to start the lap too close and when you see the gap between the top five and us, you can say that could have been a better Qualifying.

"But apart from that, we are very slow and we are struggling once again this weekend. It's a tough one again.

"I think it was a few hundredths to Yuki [Tsunoda] in P5 or a tenth, something like that. I think there was potential to do that. On the other hand, we've been struggling... it's been a difficult weekend so far."

Leclerc has failed to reach the podium in the last two Grands Prix at Sao Paulo and Las Vegas, with Ferrari now 13 and 53 points behind Red Bull and Mercedes respectively in the Teams' Championship.