Ferrari issue statement after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc disqualified from Chinese Grand Prix

Ferrari have broken their silence after suffering a double disqualification at the Chinese Grand Prix.

The Scuderia's weekend started off brightly after Lewis Hamilton clinched victory in Saturday's sprint race ahead of Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen.

However, their joy was short-lived as Sunday turned out to be a horrible day at the office.

Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Hamilton originally finished in sixth place behind Charles Leclerc who came home fifth.

However, both drivers were summoned to the stewards after the sport's governing body, the FIA, found that Leclerc's car was underweight and Hamilton's had excessive skid wear.

As a result, both drivers were disqualified along with Alpine's Pierre Gasly, whose car was also underweight.

On the back of their double disqualification, Ferrari have now broken their silence on the matter.

Ferrari break silence after dismal Chinese Grand Prix

Ferrari said in a statement posted on social media: "Following the FIA post-race scrutineering both our cars were found not to conform to the regulations for different reasons. Car 16 was found to be underweight by 1 kg and car 44's rearward skid wear was found to be 0.5mm below the limit.

"Charles was on a one-stop strategy today and this meant his tyre wear was very high, causing the car to be underweight. With regard to Lewis' skid wear, we misjudged the consumption by a small margin."

It continued: "There was no intention to gain any advantage. We will learn from what happened today and make sure we don't make the same mistakes again. Clearly it's not the way we wanted to end our Chinese GP weekend, neither for ourselves, nor for our fans whose support for us is unwavering."

F1 will now return in two weeks' time with the Japanese Grand Prix, which will be held around the famous Suzuka Circuit on April 6.