Charles Leclerc calls out Lewis Hamilton on team radio during Chinese GP qualifying

Charles Leclerc was far from impressed with teammate Lewis Hamilton during the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint – and he made his feelings abundantly clear over the Ferrari team radio.

Mercedes' George Russell, who started on pole, beat Leclerc and Hamilton to victory in an entertaining Sprint at the Shanghai International Circuit.

Hamilton and Russell swapped places five times in the opening five laps before the latter eased to victory, but it was a wheel-to-wheel clash between the Ferrari teammates that grabbed headlines.

As they battled for second place, Leclerc managed to secure an advantage over Hamilton on Turn 1 of Lap 8.

Hamilton, however, was determined to bite back. The Brit tried to overtake Leclerc and got closer than expected to his teammate, who was not impressed. “Argh, the space," he said over the radio. "Does he know how wide these cars are, or not?"

Leclerc added: “Then he can complain about Turn 3, that’s okay.”

Leclerc went on to finish the Sprint in second place, while Hamilton secured third.

Charles Leclerc criticised for Sprint battle with Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton

Leclerc was "very aggressive" with Hamilton in the Sprint, according to former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who didn't hold back in his assessment of their battle.

"Well, Charles was pushing. Lewis really had genuine pace early on, then obviously was aggressive because once you're in the lead, you can kind of control it," Villeneuve told Sky Sports F1.

"So he was trying to stay in the lead there. I found Charles very aggressive in his defence against Lewis. That was a little bit almost over the edge, I would say, because Lewis didn't fight him off meanly; it was very clean. Then Charles was pushing him off the track, which was a little bit tough."

Villeneuve also gave his take on whether Ferrari can get the win over Mercedes on Sunday.

"They seem to be able to do it every time they get on the track. That energy that they have in the first few laps, they will have it, and even more so with full tanks; it will be more apparent then," he said.

"But I think George has learned a lot today from that race, to try not to get caught out again. And [Kimi] Antonelli has to work on his racecraft because that's too many mistakes from a car that should finish, at worst, second. But it's not just the start, it's the whole first lap more or less, if not more than that.

"And I think George kind of said, I think Lewis caught him out a little bit. I think George got through Turn 1, which he thought was going to be the issue, probably felt like, 'Right, OK, I'm gone now,' and didn't even look in his mirrors. He would have seen Lewis fly past him.

"And what was interesting for me with George was he was checking his mirror and checking left so much when Lewis passed him, because the speed differential is so different now. It's not like you pass a car and you know exactly where that car is, you don't really know because they've got such differences in the way that they're approaching their deployment and the battery.

Villeneuve added: "So I think tomorrow he will have learned, especially George. But it's not just the first lap; it's the first maybe three, four laps he needs to worry about."

Top 10 in the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint

1. George Russell (Mercedes) - 8pts

2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) - 7

3. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) - 6

4. Lando Norris (McLaren) - 5

5. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) - 4

6. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) - 3

7. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) - 2

8. Oliver Bearman (Haas) - 1