Charles Leclerc details 'very scary' near-miss in F1 restart

Charles Leclerc has explained the "very scary moment" he endured during the sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix, which saw him unable to take advantage of the safety car restart.

The Ferrari driver suffered a massive snap of oversteer coming out of the hairpin in the final sector of the Shanghai International Circuit, leaving him unable to pounce on the Mercedes of George Russell.

Having seen the Briton ease out a four-second gap before the Nico Hulkenberg-induced interruption, it was a golden opportunity for the eight-time grand prix winner to snatch victory from the F1 drivers' championship leader.

Recalling how those events unfolded in the post-sprint press conference, having ultimately crossed the line in second ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton, Leclerc told media, including RacingNews365: "That was a very scary moment, I thought that was it.

"I saw George having a snap. And I was like: 'Okay, that's an opportunity for me to be super close for the restart and hopefully take the lead.

"So I was quite confident I would have rear grip. However, when I went on throttle, I completely lost the car 10 times more than the snap George had in front, and I nearly lost it.

"Yeah, it's one of those snaps that you don't want any more degree of snap, because otherwise you cannot catch it. I was full lock, and luckily I caught it back."

But that was not the end of the difficult restart for either driver, with Leclerc chronicling how they both suffered another snap of oversteer through the final corner, which ultimately put pay to his chances.

"And then the same thing happened in the last corner where George lost a bit of grip, and I was like: 'Okay, another opportunity to try and get closer' — and I just had the same moment," the Monegasque driver added.

"So there was just very poor grip in these first two corners with the tyres after the safety car."

It handed Russell the chance to build an instant 1.2-second gap, why Leclerc was only able to halve by the chequered flag, leaving him 11 points behind the 28-year-old in the standings, equal to Kimi Antonelli in the second W17.