Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc admitted that he was surprised to suddenly catch Valtteri Bottas in the final laps of the French Grand Prix. The Maranello team’s driver closed in quickly on his Mercedes rival over the final laps and even had a speculative look up the inside of Bottas at the final corner:
“I was catching quite quickly at the end,” said Charles Leclerc. “The car felt pretty good. I had paid quite a lot of attention to both axles of tyres before and I was just focusing on the end of the race, to have the tyres in quite a good shape and I think on that we did quite a good job. To be honest though I did not expect to catch Valtteri.” – he explained at the end of the 2019 French Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc was eight seconds behind Bottas with eight laps to go but started the final lap within DRS range of the Mercedes: “It was a good surprise and when I saw that I pushed even more,” he said. “At the end we finished very, very close. I tried to show myself in the inside of the last corner, but obviously I was too far [away] to try something.”
The Monegasque driver confirmed that he was pleased with his performance at the Paul Ricard circuit, but at the same time admitted that for the Maranello team there is still a lot of work to do: “I believe hard work always pays off and I feel we proved that this weekend. Now we go straight to Austria where I hope we can maintain this same good form. But clearly Mercedes are quite better for now, so we need to work and to try to catch up and close the gap.” – Charles Leclerc concluded.
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