Charles Leclerc reacts to P2 in Azerbaijan GP: "I didn't defend as well as I could have"

Charles Leclerc reacts to P2 in Azerbaijan GP: “I didn’t defend as well as I could have”. Charles Leclerc reacts to second place in Baku F1 race.

Here are the first comments and impressions of Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc after P2 in the 2024 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the 6.003-kilometre Baku City Circuit:

“I think as soon as we put the hard tyres on [I knew we couldn’t win],” says Charles Leclerc. “The medium tyres felt good, but unfortunately we didn’t do any high fuel running on my side in FP1 and FP2 and we went for a setup direction that maybe in the race was a bit more difficult to manage. Especially on the hard tyres I was struggling to keep those rears and at the end I thought in one corner or two I could put it in the wall, it was very close. McLaren and Oscar have done an exceptional job and done better than us. A huge shame for Carlos on the last laps, hopefully everyone is OK and obviously not a great day for the team. I think maybe McLaren had less downforce and in the straights they were very quick. I couldn’t get as close as I wanted and eventually we lost the race when I didn’t defend as well as I could have at the end of the straight. Sometimes you make mistakes and I’ll learn from it.”