0
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc has exclaimed his delight at finishing second in the Austrian Grand Prix, despite not having the pace in the car to challenge upfront.
Speaking after the race, Leclerc believed that his podium was down to luck thanks to the five-second penalty given to Lewis Hamilton, but said that the main goal of the whole weekend was to push as hard as possible.
Leclerc had originally started seventh in the race, but thanks to two safety cars, he worked his way up to third which became second with Hamilton's penalty, with daring moves on Lando Norris and Sergio Perez in the closing laps of the race.
"It is a huge surprise but a good one," Leclerc said.
"I think we did everything perfect today, to be honest, to finish second. We had luck obviously with Lewis' penalty and with some crashes here and there but that's part of the race too.
"That was the goal. To take every opportunity we had even though we didn't have the pace to finish where we were."
Leclerc also spoke about his problems with restarting under the safety car, claiming that he was losing time during each restart coming through the first corner, leaving him vulnerable on the long run down to turn three.
This allowed him to take a more aggressive approach against the cars ahead, namely Norris and Perez, and prompted him to chance overtakes into turn three from a long distance.
"I wanted to be very aggressive because after every safety car I was struggling in the exit of turn one all the way to turn three," Leclerc explained.
"I knew there was no opportunity for me here but I knew an opportunity would come if someone will do a mistake and Lando slowed down a little bit with Sergio at one point and I just went for it.
"The other one with Sergio was pretty tough, but I really enjoyed it."
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
M. Verstappen
C. Sainz jr
C. Leclerc
Bahrain
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street Circuit
Australia
Albert Park
Japan
Circuit Suzuka
United States of America
Miami International Autodrome
Monaco
Monte Carlo
Canada
Gilles Villeneuve
Spain
Circuit de Catalunya
Austria
Red Bull Ring
United Kingdom
Silverstone
Hungary
Hungaroring
Belgium
Spa-Francorchamps
Netherlands
Circuit Zandvoort
Italy
Monza
Azerbaijan
Baku City Circuit
Singapore
Marina Bay Street Circuit
United States of America
Circuit of the Americas
Mexico
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Brazil
Interlagos
United States of America
Las Vegas Street Circuit
United Arab Emirates
Yas Marina Circuit
75,843 comments on Ferrari
10 members have this team as their favourite
Tweets about Charles Leclerc
483,726 comments on Ferrari 279 members have this team as their favourite Tweets about Ferrari
Replies (0)
Login to reply