Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc started and finished the first F1 Sprint of the year in second place, and he rues on a missed opportunity.
The first F1 Sprint of the year didn’t lack action. It was an enthralling 21 laps of racing from the very get go. Leclerc who started on pole, got a stellar start and overtook Max Verstappen at the first corner.
For the first few laps, it seemed that the Monegasque had it all under control. He built somewhat of a comfortable lead, and looked set to start tomorrow’s race from the front.
However, a late race comeback from Verstappen changed it all. The Dutch driver had seemingly managed his tyres better, which allowed him to make a late, but effective push for the lead.
Leclerc admits that he lost the Sprint race in the opening few laps, where he pushed harder than he should have. It led to faster tyre degradation, which gave a patient Verstappen a huge advantage.
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Charles Leclerc promises to come back stronger on Sunday for the main race
For Leclerc it was a bit of a disappointment to not have taken P1 from the Sprint. For his teammate on the other hand, it was a stunning recovery drive. A crash during Qualifying on Friday meant that Carlos Sainz started today’s race P10.
The Spaniard charged his way up the field to finish 4th. He will now start tomorrow’s Main race on the second row, alongside Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. After the race, Leclerc explained what went wrong, during an interview with Sky Sports.
“I feel like I’ve paid the price of doing that (pushing early) at the end of the race,” said Leclerc. “It’s still a front row start. We struggled with the tyres at the end, so we need to analyze that for tomorrow.”
“The main race is tomorrow. We need to make sure that we’re ready. The pace was good until then, we started to have some draining on the front left and lost it towards the end. That’s life, we’ll go to work and come back stronger tomorrow.”
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