Leclerc pinpoints why Ferrari couldn't fight Red Bull in Jeddah

Charles Leclerc has highlighted Ferrari's tyre warm-up as a reason it was not able to challenge Red Bull in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

After qualifying second and splitting Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez on the grid, Leclerc initially held position from Perez, but the Mexican ultimately passed the Monegasque to make it a second straight one-two for the reigning World Champions.

Leclerc was comfortably best of the rest and drove to an otherwise lonely third place, and believes how Verstappen and Perez were able to use their Pirelli Hard tyres was a key factor in a race that has traditionally feature low degradation.

Ferrari struggles pinpointed

"The DRS, I don't think that's where we are lacking at the moment," Leclerc told media including RacingNews365 after his first podium of the season.

"But of course we'll have a further analysis after this weekend to understand exactly what are still our weaknesses and try to update them since last race.

"However, I don't think tyre degradation was a thing. It was more about tyre warm-up and we struggled a bit more to bring them to the right temperature in order to push.

"This made it also a bit more difficult because I had to overtake cars during my warm-up, and that was a bit trickier for us than for them.

"That's where they pulled the gap, which then stayed more or less stable towards the end, but that was too late for us to put them under any pressure."