Charles Leclerc says there are both positive and negative aspects to his third-place result at the Belgian Grand Prix, having finished over half a minute behind race winner Max Verstappen.
Championship leader Verstappen had been quickest in qualifying but a grid penalty for a gearbox change saw him start sixth, with Leclerc on pole. Although Sergio Perez took the lead on the opening lap, Leclerc looked comfortable as he held onto third once Verstappen also came through, praising Ferrari’s execution but admitting the gap to Red Bull remains daunting.
“This was the best we could achieve today, no doubt,” Leclerc said. “So yeah, you always hope to try to win the race, but on the other hand, realistically, we knew that both of the Red Bulls would be much quicker. But our target was to maximize the points with the package we had and honestly, I don’t think we could have done anything better today.
“We’ve had quite a positive weekend on our side in terms of pace. Of course, the race went well on my side, but a shame for Carlos (who retired following his opening-lap collision with Oscar Piastri), as I think we had good pace. So that is good. When you look at the Red Bull, we still have a lot of work to do, especially in terms of race pace, because degradation and everything they are quite far ahead still.”
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One area that often comes under scrutiny at Ferrari is strategy but Leclerc says the way the team managed the threat from Lewis Hamilton throughout the race was faultless.
“Basically, we had to react to what Lewis was doing behind, which then the Red Bull had to react to us a lap later. That’s why we were all on the same strategy, because everybody was reacting to somebody else’s strategy. Our strategy was based on Lewis and trying to keep him behind during the whole race. He had a good pace but I felt we had him under control.”
As the final stint was unfolding, Leclerc was within four seconds of Perez in the fight for second but says “a bit too much” fuel saving prevented him from mounting a challenge.
“When Checo started to push again for a few laps at the end, I could not match that, so I think they also had a bit of margin. But at one point I was seeing that I was doing the same lap times as Checo, I didn’t know how much he was saving but I knew how much I was saving, so I thought, ‘OK, maybe we can get second place’ — but then very quickly I understood that he was just saving.”