The Ferrari driver has faced a fight with the group after starting 19th due to a penalty on the grid for an engine change, but he made good early progress until he was trapped behind ‘Esteban Ocon around the midpoint.
When Leclerc stretched into his first stage after starting with hard tires – that is, he lacked pace at the end of the stage behind Ocon – a slow pit stop by Ferrari mechanics held him back for an additional three seconds, which caused him to fall behind an independent DRS. four-car train run by Lance Stroll.
This problem cost Leclerc several laps stuck behind the slowest cars, and despite benefiting from a late safety car caused by the Yuki Tsunoda accident that caused the Monegasque to catch and overtake the two Alpines, he had to settle for fifth place.
As a result, Leclerc became upset about not making any further progress due to DRS trains and the slow pit stop that delayed his loading.
“In the first part of the race, there was no problem with traction in general. Everyone had DRS, so I couldn’t do anything,” Leclerc said.
“In the middle of the stage, there was a big traction problem, but that was only because Esteban had new tires and so out of turn 10 is where you need the tires. He had a lot more grip than me, so I struggled to get it in. keep it there and that was very frustrating.
“Then obviously we had the problem at the pit stop, which made our lives a lot harder, because I got four cars back with the DRS train and I had to be a little more aggressive afterwards to get back. “Yes, P5 was the best.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Leclerc believes that without any problems in the race he could have challenged the two Mercedes drivers, with Lewis Hamilton finishing on the podium just ahead of his teammate George Russell, fourth.
“I would have changed quite a bit without these few things,” he said of career issues.
“It simply came to our notice then.
“Obviously the pit stop has cost us a lot today.”
The Ferrari driver has dropped 49 points behind Canadian GP winner Max Verstappen in the F1 drivers’ standings, with Sergio Pérez splitting the pair and three points ahead of Leclerc after retiring from Montreal , but the Monegasque remains optimistic when it comes to fighting. to the Red Bulls in the next few races.
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“It motivates me because, of course, I know the pace is in the car,” Leclerc said of the difference with Verstappen in the championship. “I’m not worried, I’m just very motivated to finally have a clean weekend and prove we’re here and we’re strong.
“So yes, at Silverstone we hope we can.
“We can see that Red Bull has obviously had some issues today as well, so yes, reliability is definitely going to be a big deal.
“But that’s what we need every time we have tougher weekends like this, just going to get good points and that’s what we’ve done today.”