Charles Leclerc explains ‘very right or very wrong’ Dutch GP Sprint gamble

Charles Leclerc admits lining up on the Zandvoort grid for the Sprint as the only driver inside the top ten on the soft Pirellis meant his decision was “either very right or very wrong”.

It proved to be very right, as he made a late pass on Lando Norris to finish runner-up behind Mercedes driver George Russell.

Charles Leclerc explains his bold gamble in the Dutch GP Sprint

Leclerc lined up in third place on the Zandvoort grid for Saturday’s 24-lap Sprint, the Ferrari driver having qualified behind Russell and Norris in a closely contested Sprint qualifying where the top four were separated by 0.099s.

That pattern continued in the Sprint with Russell, Norris, Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli separated by just three seconds throughout the first half of the race.

Leclerc made the first overtake of any driver inside the top 10 on Lap 18 when he took the inside line against Norris into Turn 1 to grab second place.

Norris had no answer for the Ferrari driver and instead found himself having to fend off Antonelli in the remaining laps.

Leclerc finished the race in second place, 1.3s behind Russell, with the pair having pulled clear of Norris and Antonelli.

It vindicated Leclerc’s decision to start the race on the soft Pirelli tyres, even though his rivals were on the medium compound.

“Always when you are the only one doing something, it’s either very right or very wrong,” Leclerc said.

“I think it was a good choice at the end, so that’s good. It means we did our homework in FP1.

“But when I was on the grid, I yeah, you just hope to have done the right choice.”

He added: “I did not expect to gain a position at the end of the race with the soft tyres. If anything, it was at the start, but I didn’t have a great start.”

However, the Monegasque driver stopped short of attributing his P2 to that soft tyre decision, saying his Ferrari SF-26 had shown good pace throughout Friday’s practice and the Sprint qualifying.

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Asked if that soft tyre decision had been crucial to his performance, Leclerc replied: “I don’t know, to be honest.

“I think our pace has been quite strong yesterday in FP1 on the long runs, which we did on the medium, and we were very strong. So we knew we had a good race car.

“However, in qualifying, we are lacking a little bit, but yeah, I was expecting to make positions at the start rather than at the end of the race with these soft tyres.

“It was quite a good race. I think the pace was there as we’ve seen yesterday in FP1, and now we’ve got to hopefully start a bit higher for tomorrow in order to make our race a bit more easy.”

In fact, it was a split decision at Ferrari about what tyre to run the Sprint on with the driver choosing the soft tyres while Lewis Hamilton went with the mediums.

“Well, it wasn’t,” he said when asked if it had been an obvious choice, “because we had Lewis and I on two different strategies, so surely it wasn’t obvious.

“But I thought it was a good tyre after FP1, even though I had done very few laps. I wasn’t so comfortable with the medium. So yeah, I was happy with that choice.”

Leclerc scored seven points in the Sprint to move onto 145, but he remains fourth in the Drivers’ standings where he trails Kimi Antonelli by 79 points.

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