Leclerc admits “something missing” as Ferrari's race pace struggles continue

Leclerc finished fifth at Interlagos, two places up from where he qualified.

However, he finished a distant 28 seconds behind winner Max Verstappen - and 24 seconds off Lando Norris.

Reflecting on the sprint race, Leclerc said: “The race pace wasn't bad if we compare it to Mercedes.

“But if we compare it to McLaren - Lando was extremely quick. The Red Bulls were extremely quick.

“We've got a lot of work to do in race pace because there was something missing there. I don't quite understand what it is to be so similar in qualifying  and so far away in the race.

“This is where our main focus is at the moment. Short term and also long-term because what we are seeing is big, so we need to focus on that.”

Carlos Sainz finished eighth, struggling more than his Ferrari teammate.

Both Ferraris were forced to lift and coast due to high engine temperatures.

“We’ve definitely gone into today saving as many tyres as possible for tomorrow so today was always going to be a tricky day but for sure what we didn’t expect was the temperatures of the engine and we did so much lift and coast we lost a lot of time today,” Sainz said.

“We didn’t expect to do so much today. We did a lot today. I hope that tomorrow is better. I couldn’t push all race today so hopefully tomorrow we can push a bit more and be quicker.”