Charles Leclerc earned Scuderia Ferrari’s second podium of the weekend by finishing third in the Miami Grand Prix, behind winner Lando Norris and World Championship leader Max Verstappen.
The race featured very tight margins due to minimal tire degradation, but Ferrari’s race could have taken a disastrous turn right from the start, with Sergio Perez misjudging his braking and nearly hitting both Ferrari cars and even his Red Bull teammate.
“It was very complicated,” Charles Leclerc admitted after the grand prix in Florida. “Perez was on my inside, and I definitely didn’t get off to a good start. When I released the clutch, I spun the wheels. I saw Perez on the right and he had little grip. I saw him lock up and thought we were going to collide. Fortunately, things didn’t turn out that way and we didn’t suffer any damage. I don’t know how Carlos managed to avoid Perez. Checo really took too many risks.”
After the scare at the start, Charles Leclerc focused on his stints. His stint on the Medium tires was shorter than expected in an attempt to undercut Oscar Piastri, who had passed him on the track in the early laps. The intervention of the Safety Car, needed to allow stewards to remove Logan Sargeant’s crashed Williams, spoiled Ferrari’s plans.
“At that point, we could focus on ourselves. We did quite well, but we were lacking a bit of pace once again. We did our best and were a bit unlucky with the timing of the Safety Car coming onto the track. It definitely wasn’t ideal for us. In the end, I had older tires than the drivers in the leading positions, but the best we could have hoped for today was second place. The McLaren was impressive today.” – the Monegasque driver pointed out.
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Charles Leclerc then congratulated Lando Norris, who at 24 won his first Formula 1 grand prix. However, the British driver’s victory should serve as a wake-up call for everyone. The updates brought by the Woking team clearly worked, so from now on everyone will have to deal with the papaya-colored cars.
“First of all, I’m very happy for Lando, who managed to secure his first win in Formula 1. He had come close many times but for various reasons hadn’t succeeded. This weekend he showed he was very strong. Already in Q2 he had a lap that made me say, ‘Oh, shoot. Today they are really, really strong.’ We expected them to be strong here, but not this strong. Lando clearly deserved the win. Now it’s up to us to bring updates and catch up,” concluded Charles Leclerc.
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