Leclerc led 49 of the 52 laps of the British Grand Prix on Sunday after moving to the front after the clash between title rivals Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton at Copse.
Leclerc was up to nine seconds ahead of the field despite an engine problem after Hamilton dropped back after a 10-second penalty for the first lap collision.
But Mercedes driver Hamilton was able to fight back and chase Leclerc and finally overtook him with three laps to go in Copse to claim his 99th Grand Prix victory.
Leclerc felt some frustration with his late defeat after getting so close to a first win since Italy 2019, and while he said the performance proved Ferrari’s strength, he didn’t think that was a sign that the rest of this was Year would be withstood.
“Before the weekend there was absolutely no hope of fighting for a win here at Silverstone,” said Leclerc after the race.
“That shows how great we work as a team. It’s not an easy situation, but the team is working very well. We work very well together as a team and we proved that today with second place.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF21, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12
Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images
“Now we have to keep working, because that’s what we want to do consistently: fight for victory.
“It’s great to fight Lewis today but we shouldn’t expect to be in that position for the rest of the year. We have to keep working for that. “
The result helped Ferrari break McLaren’s lead in the battle for third place in the constructors’ championship and reduce the gap to 15 points.
It was Leclerc’s first podium of the season after near misses in Imola, Spain and Baku, where he finished fourth. It was also his first podium since last year’s British Grand Prix.
When asked whether he counts it among his best podium finishes in F1, Leclerc replied: “Yes, I was really there every lap.
“I don’t think there will be a lap in which I made a big mistake. And especially in the first stint, with the engine problems, I thought my race was over
“I was pretty busy on the steering wheel, but yes, I think we handled the situation very, very well.
“We managed to reduce these engine failures for the rest of the race.”
The post Ferrari can’t expect to battle Mercedes in other F1 races in 2021 first appeared on monter-une-startup.
