Charles Leclerc voices Carlos Sainz frustration after Qatar disappointment

Charles Leclerc has vented his frustration at Carlos Sainz following a botched final lap during sprint qualifying in Qatar.

Leclerc was under pressure to improve his final effort, having dropped to ninth after his rivals completed their laps.

However, the Monegasque driver was over four-tenths of a second slower than his best time as he crossed the line, ensuring he would start Saturday's sprint race in the midpack.

Leclerc asserted his attempt was ruined by Williams' Sainz, who opted to create a gap to the cars ahead to start his own lap.

It put the cars behind, including Leclerc, under pressure to make it to the line in time.

"The last lap I think [Sainz] was taking quite a significant gap to the car ahead just before Safety Car line 2 and then obviously it puts all the guys behind under stress," said Leclerc.

"He has the right to do that but it's very annoying and it's a but unnecessary sometimes. It's a shame.

"I had to start the lap too close and when you see the gap between the top five and us, you can say that could have been a better qualifying.

"But apart from that, we are very slow and we are struggling once again this weekend. It's a tough one again.”

Leclerc believes a top-five result was on the cards before his run-in with Sainz.

"I think it was a few hundredths to Yuki [Tsunoda] in P5 or a tenth, something like that. I think there was potential to do that,” he said.

“On the other hand, we've been struggling... it's been a difficult weekend so far."

Despite his challenging result, Leclerc fared better than team-mate Lewis Hamilton who was eliminated at the end of SQ1.