Leclerc knows he was ‘lucky’ with podium finish

Finley Crebolder
Charles Leclerc 2020

Charles Leclerc a mix of Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen.

After taking his second podium of 2020, Charles Leclerc says he’s “very happy” with both the result and the balance of the car.

The Ferrari driver got the most out of his car on Saturday to qualify in P4 and held his position there for most of the race.

With the front three-way ahead of him but no real pressure from behind, he looked set to finish there. However, a late puncture for Valtteri Bottas bumped him up to P3.

Even if he hadn’t made the podium though, Leclerc says he still would have been happy with the performance.

“I’m very happy with P3, even though I know we’re lucky to be P3, but even P4, I was very happy with the way we managed the race,” he said.

“We don’t want to be fighting for fourth for so long, but I’m very happy though that we gave it everything and maximised everything we’ve got in hand. In terms of strategy and tyre management, it wasn’t easy but we made it work so I’m very happy.”

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Leclerc’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel finished down in P10, where he qualified and has struggled to handle what he described as “very difficult car” all weekend.

The Monegasque though said that while it’s not as quick as he’d like, he’s pleased with the balance of the SF1000.

“As soon as I heard that Valtteri had a tyre problem I slowed down quite a lot but then I think Carlos had it a lap later and then Lewis a lap later,” he added.

“I’m very with how I managed the tyres from beginning to the end, very happy with the balance of the car.

“So the performance of the car is not where we want it to be but we took every opportunity and I’m very happy about today.”

Ferrari opted to run a high-downforce setup for the first race of the Silverstone doubleheader. Despite the various punctures and the fact that softer compounds will be used for the next race, he says they’ll maintain their approach.

He said: We will still be as aggressive as the approach we took for this weekend, in terms of downforce which makes it even harder for the race and tyre degradation.

“But we’ve learned a few things this weekend and I hope we can improve next weekend.

Formula 1 British Grand Prix - Drivers' Reaction

Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton reflect on an action-packed F1 British Grand Prix.

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