'It felt horrible' – Leclerc and Hamilton reflect on Ferrari's difficult Qatar Sprint

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton reflected on a difficult Qatar Sprint for Ferrari, as both drivers failed to score points after once again struggling for performance.

The Scuderia has endured a poor run of form recently and slipped away from front runners McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes in the pecking order over recent rounds.

In Qatar, both Leclerc and Hamilton struggled to control their cars through the medium- and high-speed corners of the Lusail International Circuit, which was compounded by only one-hour of Free Practice ahead of Sprint Qualifying.

Hamilton failed to progress through the opening segment for the second race in succession, while Leclerc was only able to salvage P9.

The Monegasque driver slipped back to P13 on a challenging opening lap and that was where he finished despite Liam Lawson briefly getting ahead before giving the place back.

"Just incredibly difficult to drive the car. I don't have any explanations for now," said Leclerc.

"I thought there was damage on the car. We saw something but it was after the first few laps where the problem was mostly in the first lap. We'll analyse that but it felt horrible."

When asked about what could be done ahead of Qualifying later today, Leclerc added: "Change the car massively for sure because the way it is at the moment, there's nothing we can do better if the car is the same."

Hamilton started from the pit lane after the team made changes to his car, but the seven-time World Champion was only able to finish P17 at the chequered flag.

He said: "We made some changes, that's why we started from the pit lane. Unfortunately it was the wrong direction."