After setting the 3rd fastest time in Qualifying on Saturday, Charles Leclerc drove his Ferrari into P3 after a delayed, mixed conditions race at Spa-Francorchamps.
Leclerc overcame large amounts of pressure from Max Verstappen behind him throughout the entire race, having a mostly sub-two-second gap between the two drivers across the Belgian GP
This third-place finish increases the gap to 30 points from his teammate in the driver standings, with Leclerc and Hamilton being in P5 and P6, respectively, after the Belgian GP.
Pressure from behind
Leclerc not only had to fight the conditions but also keep Max Verstappen at bay after the Dutch driver held a 2-second gap behind Leclerc for the majority of the Belgian GP. Leclerc said after the race that: “Max was behind the whole race within two seconds, so it’s never easy. I knew that the first part of the race was the trickiest one for us because we maybe didn’t have the downforce that the McLaren or that Max had. They compromised a little bit the qualifying to be better in the rain today.“
“Luckily, it dried up pretty quickly and the pace was good. Still, Max was right behind the whole race. I’m pretty happy that we managed to keep that third place.“
The Ferrari driver reacted to Oscar Piastri’s pit stop in front of him, as the rest of the grid opted for mediums, with Lando Norris adopting an alternate strategy for hards.
Difficult conditions proved tricky
When asked about a moment where he asked his engineer to be quite over the radio, Leclerc responded by stating, “Obviously, the pressure is high, especially in those conditions because as soon as you are 10-15 centimetres out the first right line, then it’s wet or greasy and you can lose the line and do a very big mistake. At one point, I just told Brian to leave me alone.”
However, Leclerc noted he understands why his engineer gave him the information, but further stated he didn’t feel it was necessary throughout the Belgian GP.
“Obviously, he’s trying to give me the most information. Sometimes, I need them. Today, I didn’t and I let him know.”
Look forwards to Hungary
With the Hungarian GP coming up next weekend, Ferrari is hoping their new upgrades will continue to perform coming into Budapest, and with no sprint weekend happening, Leclerc will be hoping for a little more after this weekend.
Leclerc stated “Honestly, we’ve had what we expected with this upgrade and that’s really positive. We need to keep learning about how to maximise this new upgrade.It’s still pretty new, but it’s a good first weekend and I’m happy that we are on the podium to thank the whole team back in Maranello.”
“We keep pushing and hopefully, we’ll put soon a bit more pressure on the McLarens.”
After a strong podium finish at the Belgian GP, Leclerc will certainly be hoping to bring his strong form into next weekend in Budapest, continuing to close his 18 point gap to George Russell for P5 in the driver standings.