Charles Leclerc admits his engineers are confused after Lewis Hamilton overtook him three times

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Charles Leclerc has reacted to a dispiriting Austrian Grand Prix that saw him drop from second on the grid to eighth at the chequered flag.

Leclerc responded to recent criticism with a fine qualifying performance, beating Lewis Hamilton to secure his first front-row start of the year.

But the Monegasque lacked pace throughout Sunday’s race, with Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Kimi Antonelli, Isack Hadjar and Lando Norris all getting ahead. After making a third, nothing-to-lose pit stop in the closing laps, he came home eighth.

What went wrong for Ferrari at the Austrian Grand Prix?

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Charles Leclerc: ‘Nobody’ understands why we aren’t consistent

Hamilton was the first to get through on Leclerc and ended up passing his teammate twice more as he made use of a tyre offset.

Leclerc has now failed to beat Hamilton in five straight races – his worst run against a teammate since 2019, which was his first year at Ferrari alongside Sebastian Vettel.

Leclerc attributed his Spielberg woes to rear tyre temperatures with the track measured at roughly 60 degrees. But the larger issue is that ‘nobody’ on his side of the Ferrari garage can understand the inconsistent performance levels.

“It was pretty bad today,” he told Sky Sports. “I went into a set-up direction yesterday that I felt was pretty similar to what felt good last year but this year it was never working.

Your championship standings after the Austrian GP! What has this win done for George Russell’s title chances?

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“The rear was never there, I was sliding around, overheating the rear tyres. It was very tricky. Nobody is really understanding the difference of performance from one weekend to another.

“In Barcelona, we were probably one of the strongest cars – we brought some upgrades that worked. I don’t think it was down to the upgrades this weekend. It’s just these cars are very sensitive. If you are not in the right place with set-up, you pay the price a lot.”

In a separate interview with Sky Germany, he said: “Every time I was fighting these guys, I knew I was much slower than them, there wasn’t much I could do. I was getting overtaken round the inside, round the outside. It was not enjoyable race.”

• READ MORE: Kimi Antonelli noticed ‘weird’ Ferrari problem while following them at Austrian Grand Prix

Leclerc only has one top-seven finish in the last five Grands Prix, but he has shown flashes of speed, most notably qualifying in Austria. He was also on course for strong showings in Monaco and Barcelona before mistakes.

He has now fallen to sixth in the world championship, 46 points behind his teammate, who finished fifth. The biggest concern for Ferrari is their lack of pace on Sunday, especially after their much-anticipated engine upgrade.