Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc admitted that he was “disappointed to only finish second” in the Las Vegas Grand Prix having looked set for victory at one stage.
Leclerc lost track position at the start to eventual race winner Max Verstappen, with the Red Bull driver running both cars off of the road at Turn 1.
However, Leclerc was able to take the lead just prior to the first round of pitstops and Verstappen was hit with a five-second time penalty in the pits for his earlier manoeuvre.
But after Geroge Russell tagged Verstappen at Turn 12 when the Dutchman passed him halfway through the race, the Safety Car was called to clear debris.
Both Red Bull drivers pitted, Leclerc stayed out and on older tyres he could do nothing to stop Verstappen from taking victory, but saved second after repassing Sergio Perez on the final lap.
“I really believe that without the Safety Car, the win was ours,” Leclerc said post-race.
“We had on a really good first stint on the medium and I think we had five laps newer hard [tyres] than Max.
“I had a good four or five laps in order to bring them into temperature and we had done a really good job on that. So I was really confident that the win was ours.
“Then there was unfortunately the Safety Car.
“Max and Checo stopped and I stayed on my five-lap used hard – which is not too much, five laps, but the problem is that then when you cool them down during the Safety Car, to restart a used tyre is incredibly difficult with those temperatures. And there we lost the race.”
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, however, and Leclerc admitted it was difficult to judge what the right call would be when the Safety Car came out.
“It’s always easy to say ‘I have only done five laps’,” he added.
“On the other hand I didn’t know what Max and Checo will do behind me.
“If they wouldn’t have stopped then being behind two Red Bulls will have been difficult to pass them.
“Now I would have stopped but now I know what they have done so it’s too easy to say.”
The Monegasque driver’s luckless run of pole positions without a victory continues and after securing his 23rd pole position Leclerc came away with yet another second place.
“I’m of course disappointed to only finish second, but at the end that was the best we could do,” he admitted.
“At the start it was very tricky because I think Max on the inside lost a bit of grip and brought me on the outside.
“But then we had the pace, we passed him back and we were really strong, overall, so that was a really good race.
“We got a bit unlucky with the Safety Car. We didn’t pit because we didn’t know what the others will do and we went for track position and keeping that first place and that was difficult with the older tyres towards the end. But second place with a lot of fights, honestly I enjoyed it.”
Leclerc also praised Vegas for putting on an entertaining race, which he felt was needed after the problematic start to the weekend.
Leclerc’s Ferrari team-mate saw his car extensively damaged by a loose drain cover in first practice, which brought the FP1 session to an end after just nine minutes.
This then brought a lengthy delay to FP2, with fans escorted away from the venue before cars went out on track and only handed a voucher by way of compensation the next day.
However, Leclerc feels the race helped turn things around for Formula 1’s inaugural night race down the Las Vegas Strip.
“I’m sure that everybody had an amazing time looking at the race,” he concluded. “I really, really enjoyed it.
“We shall have more races like that where the racing is like that because it was really enjoyable. I think we needed it.
“Of course, the weekend didn’t start the way it had to start, but I’m so happy that it ended that way.
“It’s such an incredible sport. I think today, there was no better race than our first race in Vegas. The energy around the city is incredible and just really happy, at least I enjoyed today.”
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