Abu Dhabi-French Speakers Report: Leclerc Struggling, a Disappointment for Our 2 Frenchmen

Charles Leclerc: 3rd (3rd on the grid)

11 points separate Verstappen from Leclerc for third place in the drivers’ championship before the lights go out. The young Monegasque wanted to take more risks to finish ahead of the Dutchman and clinch third place in the championship, but in vain.

Good start for the Ferrari driver who moves into second place, overtaking Verstappen in the first hectometers of the race. He stops at the end of the thirteenth lap to put on hard tires and rejoins in fourth place. As the Red Bull driver pits, Leclerc moves back into second. On the 32nd lap, Verstappen overtakes Leclerc again using DRS and fresher tires despite an engine power issue with his Honda. Leclerc pits on the 39th lap to put on soft tires which he’ll keep until the end of the race. Battling with Bottas at the end of the race, the Monegasque maintains his third place. He finishes 43 seconds behind the winner.

Before the podium, Leclerc reflects on his year speaking to David Coulthard: « We must be happy with this year, a huge thank you to Sebastian. I fulfilled my dream by joining Ferrari. Being with this team today is incredible. It’s up to me to work to be better and give them the success they deserve »

An inconsistency has emerged between the fuel volume reported by Ferrari and the actual fuel volume measured by the FIA on Charles Leclerc’s car before the start. An investigation will be conducted after the race.

Pierre Gasly: 18th (11th on the grid)

Gasly, who wanted to finish ahead of Carlos Sainz to maintain his sixth place in the drivers’ championship, was unable to fulfill his desire.

A tumultuous start for the young Norman who had to return to the pits at the end of the first lap following a collision with the two Racing Points at the first corner. Lance Stroll, starting behind Gasly, touched the Toro Rosso at the left rear, which in turn hit Perez’s car in front of him. The Frenchman broke his front wing in the contact with the Mexican. He restarted last and ran a solitary race at the back of the grid. He managed to make up his deficit and passed Kubica’s Williams at the end of the race. He finished 18th following Stroll’s retirement.

A very disappointed and fired-up Pierre Gasly comments on his race: With Stroll behind, there’s a fifty percent chance that things will go wrong. […] We had a good pace, we had a good car, we worked well all weekend. When you see where Sainz finishes and what Daniil does, there was clearly the potential to get a good result. […] I’m just gutted about what happened because we clearly had the potential to secure sixth place.

Romain Grosjean: 15th (15th on the grid)

Although he lost 2 positions at the start, Grosjean slowly climbed up to fourteenth place before pitting on the twentieth lap. He re-emerged in twentieth with hard tires. Rarely seen on screen, the Frenchman spent the whole race trailing behind his teammate.

The Frenchman comments on his race: « There are no miracles, we have a very capricious, very complicated car. I think on my side we need to work on the starts. With the engineers, we’ll sit down and try to understand. I lose places every time so it obviously doesn’t help us. I was starting next to Kevin and he finds himself in the top 10 from the first corner while I end up 17th. We lose a lot of time due to the strategy. We did the best we could, we could have switched to hard [tires] earlier, but it wouldn’t have changed much.»