Leclerc and F1 2026’s oddities: The “crazy laps” are gone

Fourth on the grid won’t have been what Charles Leclerc was aiming for going into qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, but he was surprisingly upbeat all things considered. 

The Monegasque had a slight smile on his face at the end of Saturday’s session having improved upon his grid position for the sprint earlier in the day, just 0.013 seconds behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who finished third.

“It’s very rare for me to say to be happy when I’m P4 but honestly this track is, by far, I’m just struggling so much on this track I don’t know why, I’ve tried everything, I’ve tried different setups, I’ve tried different driving,” he told media including Autosport.

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