Charles Leclerc says that Ferrari’s pace at the Australian Grand Prix was a “very good surprise” for the team.
Leclerc dominated the race in Melbourne, leading every lap on his way to victory, just over 24 hours after he took pole position for the event.
The Monegasque driver was largely unchallenged on Sunday, and for most of the race, he was extending his lead at the head of the pack.
Although Ferrari has displayed impressive form throughout the weekend, Leclerc admits that he wasn’t expecting such a performance margin to Red Bull in the grand prix.
“I think we were all surprised by our pace,” Leclerc said. “Yes, because I mean, on the Medium, already, towards the end of the stint, we were extremely strong, we managed those tyres extremely well.
“We didn’t have too much graining, so yeah, the pace was very strong.
“And then on the Hard, we probably expected Red Bull to be a bit closer in terms of pace, but also there we seem to have the upper hand.
“After qualifying and FP2, we didn’t see that performance difference between us and Red Bull. So it was a very good surprise.”
Leclerc’s biggest threat came at the second Safety Car restart, when he understeered through the final corner as the race resumed.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen drew alongside Leclerc and challenged him into the first corner, however the Ferrari driver managed to stay ahead.
“I tried to prepare the last corner as much as possible, staying on the left, but I actually took quite a bit of old rubber and I just couldn’t turn for the last corner,” Leclerc explained.
“So I lost so much. And then we were side-by-side with Max for the first corner, I managed to stay in the lead.
“Then it got much better with the tyres and then we could pull a gap to have a bit more margin.”
