Charles Leclerc ranks Silverstone podium "very high" on all-time best races

Ferrari

Leclerc ranks Silverstone podium "very high" on all-time best races

Ferrari driver led all but the final two lap in the British Grand Prix

Will Gray

Monday 26 July 2021 10:30

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Charles Leclerc has claimed he feels "a more complete driver" after his podium-worthy performance at the British Grand Prix.

Leclerc led from the restart, following the collision between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, and he held the lead all the way until lap 50, when he was finally overhauled by recovering Mercedes driver Hamilton.

Leclerc, who suffered with engine difficulties throughout the 52 laps, said: “I definitely rate it very high because I feel a more complete driver than where I was in 2019, that’s for sure, today I don’t think I’ve done any mistakes, no big mistakes.

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“Surprisingly we were actually pushing a lot on these tyres, so the mistakes were easy to do but I actually pushed 100 per cent from the first lap to the last lap and it felt good.

“I think as a team, first of all, the car was amazing but also we managed very well the difficult situation in the first stint where we had the small engine cut and we managed it very well with the team, which was good to see.”

Leclerc praises start engineers for “incredible job”

Leclerc was on the effective pole position for the restart of the red-flagged race and out-dragged Hamilton to hold position and actually soon left the Mercedes driver in the distance.

He explained: “The start engineers did an incredible job, it’s a few races now where we have had very good start performances and on the second re-start I just focused on whatever I had to do in the car to do the best jump out of the grid I could.

“Then I took my line in turn three and four and when I looked again in the mirrors there was quite a gap, which was good to see and helped me for the rest of the race.”