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Hamilton: Ferrari car was 'terrible' after post-sprint changes in China

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19 hoursMotorsport

Lewis Hamilton feels adjustments made to his Ferrari in the aftermath of his sprint victory at the Chinese Grand Prix made the car perform terribly in the main race.

Both Hamilton and his team-mate Charles Leclerc were disqualified from Sunday's second race of the season, with their cars found to have breached different technical rules.

Leclerc and Hamilton had finished fifth and sixth, respectively, at the Shanghai International Circuit, but the former's car was found to be underweight during post-race checks, while the latter was punished for an infringement relating to excessive skid-plank wear. 

The double DQ wrapped up a miserable day for Ferrari, who had started the weekend in promising fashion when Hamilton won Saturday's sprint race from the front of the grid.

The Ferrari disqualifications were announced after the conclusion of media activities in Shanghai, but Hamilton was already disheartened by the impact of setup changes.

The seven-time world champion said: "Balance-wise, from the sprint race, we made these changes, and the car was terrible after that.

"I really struggled from then on. I think it's good learning, and we hopefully won't do that again as I continue to learn this car."

Following his disqualification, Hamilton sits ninth in the revised drivers' championship standings with nine points, with McLaren's Lando Norris out in front with 44.

Ferrari are joint-fourth with Williams in the constructors' standings, accruing 17 points to trail McLaren (78), Mercedes (57) and Red Bull (36).

The Scuderia have a weekend off as they prepare for the season's resumption at the Japanese Grand Prix on April 6, and Hamilton says they have plenty of ground to make up.

"The window is quite narrow, but there is some performance there, like we had in the sprint," Hamilton added.

"We're always trying to move forwards. It didn't end up being the greatest, but it is what it is.

"We can see where we are performance-wise; we clearly have to improve our pace as the guys ahead are pretty quick. We have some work to do to close the gap."