Despite seemingly having a podium – and possibly even a win – within reach, Charles Leclerc insists that Ferrari made the right decisions in Turkey after eventually crossing the finish line fourth in a race where tire management was critical had crossed.
Third on the grid, Leclerc looked strong in the first half of the 58-lap Grand Prix, and when pole sitter Valtteri Bottas pitted on lap 37, he duly led the field. And since his used intermediate tires were hardly any slower than Bottas’ new ones, the prospects for the Monegasque looked bright.
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That was until it became clear that the tires that had survived an initial graining phase on fresh rubber were actually much faster than the now slick intermediate rings on the cars of those – like Leclerc – who hadn’t pitted. And the later you left it, the worse it got.
“It was a great race,” said Leclerc, who finally boxed on lap 47. “In the first stint we were very, very competitive. Then unfortunately we were a bit out of phase in the second stint and stopped later.
2021 Turkish Grand Prix: Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc fight for third place
“At first we were faster in the first five or six laps of the others on the new Inters than they were on the used Inters. But after six laps I think they cleared the grit and then found a lot of power – about three seconds per lap – and then we had no other choice, we had to stop. “
That was the end of his podium hopes and left him in fourth place. Since Lewis Hamilton also made the wrong call and even stopped later, Leclerc could still have finished third. However, when he struggled to get the pace out of his new tires, there was nothing she could do to outperform Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
“For the last 10 rounds I was just trying to tune in the Inters, which never really came to life,” added Leclerc. “It’s a bit of a shame because we lost the podium as a result, but I have no regrets.
Charles Leclerc: “It’s a shame”, we didn’t stop looking for the podium sooner
“In Russia the communication wasn’t that great in my opinion, but this time the communication was very good, I had a clear picture of the race and we made the right choice, or what we thought was right at the time.”
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Leclerc has finished just one place behind the podium for the fifth time this season. In the battle for P6 in the drivers’ standings, however, he closed the gap on his team-mate Carlos Sainz, who was only half a point apart.
