Charles Leclerc: “It’s not a great day for the team”
The Ferrari driver, who took pole on Saturday, was unable to follow up his performance in the race through the streets of Baku on Sunday.
Started in pole position, Charles Leclerc only lasted 20 laps before giving in to a faster Oscar Piastri. He stayed close for a long time but couldn’t regain the lead in the race.
After the race, Charles Leclerc spoke about his inability to overtake Oscar Piastri for the lead: « I think that as soon as we put on the hard tires [we struggled to fight]. With the mediums, the car was handling well, and unfortunately, I didn’t get much running with a lot of fuel on my side in FP1 or FP2, and we chose a setup direction for the race that might have been a bit more difficult to manage. I struggled to manage those hard rear tires. »
A nail-biting end to the race, the gap between the two was small, the Monegasque did everything to get ahead. Towards the end, I really thought that in one or two turns, I was going to end up hitting the wall. It was very close. Second today, McLaren and Oscar did an exceptional job and were better than us. It’s really a shame for Carlos in the last lap, but I hope everyone is okay. It’s not a great day for the team, he said after the race, on the edge of the podium.
A mixed result for the Italian team with Charles Leclerc finishing in second place and an accident at the end of the race between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez.
