Sauber’s Charles Leclerc says his top 10 finish at the Spanish Grand Prix came as a bigger surprise than the sixth spot he achieved at the preceding round in Azerbaijan.
Leclerc warned Sauber heading into the event that it “could not expect miracles” in the aftermath of his result around the streets of Baku, and was braced for a tougher weekend.
Leclerc once again made it through to Q2 and lined up from 14th place, from where he surged forwards off the line and avoided the drama to hold ninth spot, which became eighth when Kimi Raikkonen retired.
Leclerc ultimately lost out to Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez during the final stint but expressed encouragement at adding another point to his tally.
“Yeah this is definitely the biggest surprise of the year in terms of performance,” he said.
“Arriving to Barcelona I think we expected to be very far [from the ultimately pace] and at the end it has been a lot better than expected.
“I mean, Q2, and again another point which is twice in a row, so yeah, it was a really great weekend again.”
Leclerc added that Sauber struggled with maintaining tyre temperature during the Virtual Safety Car period, and that worsening degradation meant he had little chance at keeping Alonso and Perez at bay.
“At the end it was very difficult for me to keep him [Alonso] behind because I had the front left that was completely done,” Leclerc explained.
“It was the same with Sergio, my front left was destroyed, I had graining and blistering and everything, so it was very bad.
“Every time there was a VSC it was quite bad for us as it’s quite difficult for our car to keep temperatures in the tyres, and, yeah, at the restart he [Alonso] just passed me.”
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