F1 | Ferrari, Charles Leclerc: “Positive weekend, it helps us from a mental point of view”

Excellent race by Charles Leclerc on the Sochi Olympic circuit, especially given the conditions of the qualification. Even though he had the potential to, at least, get into Q3, Charles had to settle for eleventh position yesterday. This gave him the opportunity to choose the starting compound, and his race starts from there on the medium tyre, but thanks to the penalty imposed on Albon he starts from tenth place. The Monegasque manages to avoid chaos, manages to recover positions thanks to the retirements of Sainz and Stroll, but also thanks to the pit stops of his opponents, reaching up to second position. Charles extends the stint until the twenty-ninth lap, when he returns to fit white tyres, the hardest available this weekend. Whether it was a coincidence, or a deliberate move, Leclerc managed to rejoin in front of both Renaults, held back by teammate Sebastian Vettel. Ricciardo then manages to pass him and extend so much that he holds the position, despite the five second penalty. He is sixth at the checkered flag.

Therefore, the Ferrari strategy was good today, at least for the Monegasque, who also said he was surprised by the performance of the SF1000: the reds were among the last cars to return for the pit stop.

“I would say that today was a rather positive race since starting from tenth position on the grid we managed to finish sixth under the checkered flag. Obviously sixth place is not usually a result one can be particularly happy about, but today was the best we could achieve" admitted Leclerc at the end of the race.

“It was difficult at the beginning, since my start wasn't the best and so I entered Turn 1 having lost a few positions. Luckily I was able to recover them immediately and from that moment on my performance was very good because we had a really good pace. In the first stint I was competitive with the Medium tires which I managed to make last a long time by focusing in particular on this aspect after we had noticed some degradation in the simulations on Friday. In short, I believe that today we have managed to maximize our potential and this is the most important thing. It was a positive weekend which also helps us from a mental point of view."