'We've got to react' – Leclerc and Hamilton offer verdict on Ferrari's Azerbaijan performance

Charles Leclerc insists that Ferrari have "got to react" after a disappointing Azerbaijan Grand Prix despite a double points finish for the Scuderia.

The Monegasque driver could only finish ninth in Sunday's 51-lap race on the streets of Baku, with team mate Lewis Hamilton one place further ahead after both drivers started down the field.

Hamilton had failed to reach Q3 and started P12, while Leclerc crashed in Q3 and started P10 at a venue where he had previously taken four pole positions on the bounce.

"We've got to react. It's not been a strong weekend at all," said Leclerc when asked how he and the team move forward.

"It's always easy to blame the car and I think overall the car this weekend hasn't been the strongest and it's been a difficult weekend. We have some explanations, first is probably the approach that I've had on the set-up, which hasn't been the right one. Second, I think our car is struggling whenever it's cool and it's been quite cold since yesterday and that made us struggle.

"But I think the main reason, and I am the first one responsible of that, is the mistake in Qualifying. When you start P10, it's very difficult to change the situation.

"You kind of hope to beat the strategy of all the other fast drivers but I kind of ended up the other side and I was stuck behind Liam [Lawson] the whole race. He did a really good job of defending and had good straight line speed so he could keep me behind, and I couldn't really use my pace, so it was a boring race."

Ferrari entered the weekend after another strong showing on Friday, Hamilton having set the pace in Free Practice 2 from Leclerc and happy with the direction the team had taken.

The seven-time World Champion was content with his progress in a race where overtaking was difficult, but agreed with his team mate's assessment that better Qualifying performance was needed.

"Got a good start and progressed to P8 was positive," he said.

"I think our ultimate pace was not great in the race and I think I lost a lot of ground in the first stint, particularly on the hard tyre compared to the guys on the mediums. But I came back towards the end but I think overall the pace was not really great and Qualifying clearly is key.

"I think it just shows that Qualifying is everything, we didn't operate perfectly yesterday so we've got some work to do but we'll take it internally and try to improve."