Charles Leclerc, who started from 8th place, finished 4th and was elected driver of the day at Suzuka
The Ferrari driver received the honorary driver of the day trophy at Suzuka. However, he seemed to be struggling several times and did not finish on the podium. It is undoubtedly his 4 gained positions that helped him to be elected.
Today in Suzuka, Charles Leclerc was elected driver of the day. However, the Ferrari driver did not finish on the podium and even made a mistake that probably cost him the podium. Yuki Tsunoda, a Japanese driver in front of his home crowd who scored a point, almost took this place from Charles Leclerc.
« It was a bad qualifying session yesterday. If we only look at today’s race, we did an excellent job, especially being one of the only cars to make a pit stop, which means we did really well. We managed the tires well. We should be satisfied. Of course, disappointed to start only 8th today, but I can only blame myself, but well, that’s how it is.
Charles Leclerc qualified only 8th. A below-par performance for the Ferrari driver compared to his teammate. Leclerc, however, managed to make a single-stop strategy work to climb up to P2 for a significant part of the race. Leading for a few laps, he then had to give up his position in a battle with Sergio Perez after going wide off the track, fortunately without consequences for his Ferrari’s mechanics.
For a long time on the podium, he was overtaken by his teammate, who started from P4 this Sunday on the grid a few laps from the end, when the votes were close to ending.
« It’s normal for him to try, he [editor’s note: Sainz] had much more pace at that moment, we were on a completely different strategy, so it’s normal, I didn’t have much to do against Carlos [Sainz] at that point in the race. » confirms the Monegasque driver.
« Honestly, if I only look at today’s race, I am very satisfied, but we can’t just look at the race, we have to look at the whole weekend, and it wasn’t amazing because I qualified P8 and that’s why we are not on the podium today, but that’s the way it is, the team feels the same because there’s a car in P3 even though I would have liked to do better, but we will work to improve that…
« It’s always nice to do a race like this one where we showed that the performance was good. Now we have to manage to get everything in order and hope that we find the feeling in qualifying because it’s been two races in a row that we haven’t managed to get the tires to the right temperature. Normally, it’s a strength. So let’s hope that won’t be the case next time.
The Red Bull drivers, leading this weekend, were not very visible on camera, so the tired public preferred to vote for Leclerc and Tsunoda.
