Charles Leclerc revealed he has been grappling with “something very weird” in his car’s handling at some qualifying sessions this year.

The Ferrari driver described the problem he is trying to solve after taking sixth on the grid for the British Grand Prix. He qualified behind his team mate Lewis Hamilton for the fourth time this year, three of which occured in the last four rounds.

Leclerc said he is surprised by the difficulties he is having with his single-lap pace, which has previously been a strength of his. “I’m not doing the job,” he admitted.

“I think since the beginning of the season I’ve been performing very well in the races. Looking back at races there are actually not many races where I would go back to change something that I’ve done inside the car.

“Unfortunately when I look back at qualifying, which used to be my strength, there are many qualifying [sessions] where I’d like to go back and change something because every time I get to Q3 for some reason it’s not clicking at the moment.

“We’ve had good qualifyings but we didn’t have great qualifyings and again this used to be my strength so I’m not happy with the level that I’m showing in qualifying.”

He said one particular problem held him back today, which he has experienced before. “Particularly today from Q2 onwards we were fighting a bit with something inside the car,” he said. “But it’s not an excuse, I need to be better.

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“The issues are very specific,” he explained. “It’s not a balance issue, it’s not a grip issue. I don’t want to go into the detail but it’s just something very weird that we’ve got to fight in the car, especially when there are high-speed [corners] it makes it even more difficult.

“I hope we can resolve it but the good thing, if we can say it’s a good thing, is that tomorrow we won’t have any of this and for sure we won’t have any problems of that sort.”

Ferrari is expected to introduce a mechanical upgrade to its car in the near future, but Leclerc said his problem is not related to that. “It’s something we didn’t talk about too much,” he said. “It’s something that sometimes in some qualis we have the problem, in some others we have absolutely zero problem with it, but today was a bit of a problem.”

Leclerc admitted it was especially frustrating to encounter the problem on a weekend where Ferrari appear to be competitive. “I honestly feel like we were quite strong today,” he said.

“What I was lacking is a special lap and a lap where I put everything together. Unfortunately, that’s the difference from us to pole positions.”

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