Charles Leclerc was not impressed with comments made by Isack Hadjar ahead of this weekend's United States Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen goes into Sunday's race at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, in good form. The four-time world champion has recovered from a poor start to the season to win the last races.

He crossed the finish line first at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, and managed to make it back-to-back wins when he triumphed in Singapore a week later.

Ahead of this weekend's race, Verstappen's Red Bull teammate, Hadjar, has given his thoughts on the team's car and how it compares to the rest of the grid.

While admitting they were the fastest in Malaysia, he doesn't think they had the fastest car in Singapore. Instead, he thinks Ferrari were quicker. He said, per the official F1 website:

“No, I don’t think we have the fastest car. I think the car is still very hard to drive. In Malaysia, it was dominant, but I don’t think in Singapore it was the fastest car. That’s what I believe.

“I think if you put Max in the Ferrari, he would’ve won the race with more margin, that’s my opinion. In Singapore, I think [the Ferrari] was the fastest car.”

Leclerc finished second in Singapore, crossing the finish line seven seconds behind Verstappen. The 29-year-old was asked about Hadjar's statement and he gave a strong response. He said, per motorsport.com:

"Well, first of all, I think it's nonsense to start saying these kinds of things. Isack has no idea what kind of car we drive, and I have no idea what kind of car he drives.

"I think it's such a tight field that it's very, very difficult for us to predict. Yes, of course, we have an idea of how we will be on this track, but when you are speaking about such fine margins, it relies really on optimising your package, and that has a much bigger influence than what we expect in terms of cars.

"I think the only outlier in the last few races is maybe Mercedes, that we expected to be further ahead than they actually were. If they manage to finally unlock the performance that we had in mind for them in the last few races, then they will be further ahead than any others. But otherwise, it's going to be very tight."

In another interview, when asked whether he thought Ferrari had the fastest car in Singapore, Leclerc did not share the same opinion as Hadjar.

Verstappen is currently fourth in the world championship standings with 221 points. Leclerc is fifth, six points behind the Dutchman.

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli has a healthy lead at the top of the standings and can win the world title this weekend should things go his way.