Applause for Charles Leclerc
The curse has not been broken. Charles Leclerc’s tally of poles and victories continues to be increasingly ‘misaligned’: 23 pole positions and only five victories. However, today, nothing can truly be said against the Monegasque, who delivered a memorable race and finished second after an extraordinary overtaking maneuver on Sergio Perez’s Red Bull during the last lap. The #16 in red was voted Driver of the Day by Formula 1 fans, and after the race, he received well-deserved compliments from his team principal, Frederic Vasseur, who spoke to Sky Sport F1 microphones.
“I think Charles Leclerc had an exceptional race, overtaking a Red Bull three times, which doesn’t happen very often,” commented the French manager at the end of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. “We finished in second place, even though our goal was the first, but overall, I think our performance was great.”
Fred Vasseur then also applauded the performance of Carlos Sainz, who made a mistake in turn 1 but then brilliantly climbed from last to sixth: “Carlos also returned to sixth place after being 20th after the first corner. Today was a good performance, although we didn’t have much luck with the timing of the Safety Car.” – he pointed our.
Red Bull (almost) beatable
The result in Las Vegas puts Ferrari in contention for a second-place finish among the Constructors, which seemed unthinkable mid-season. “Now let’s focus on the next race,” said Fred Vasseur, “because we are only four points behind Mercedes. Singapore was a great race for us, but there Red Bull was far away and had made a mistake. Today, however, they were there, and we fought with them until the last corner. Probably the worst-case scenario for us was with the Safety Car because it came in just as Carlos had brought the tires back to temperature, but we are still in a good moment as a team and drivers.” – the Ferrari boss pointed out.
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Always looking at the championship, Fred Vasseur is optimistic: “Both drivers are doing a fantastic job, and I believe we can catch up with Mercedes. The track? When you’re on the pit wall, you never see the overall picture of the race, but I think this was exceptional. The spectacle was beautiful, as was the event. There were many overtakes during the race, the leader changed three or four times, and I believe it was one of the best races of the season. We need to keep this as a standard. We weren’t far from being able to prevail over Red Bull, but even today, they were a bit too much for us. They have dominated and are dominating, but we weren’t far from beating them.” – the Ferrari team principal concluded.
