Charles Leclerc has expressed that he was concerned his chance to win Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix had dissipated when Lando Norris undercut him at his pit stop.
Leclerc capitalised on Lando Norris being compromised when McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri passed him into Turn 4 to rise into second place on the opening lap.
However, Leclerc succumbed the spot when McLaren triggered an undercut on Lap 15 which enabled Norris to get back ahead once the Ferrari emerged one lap later.
But Leclerc would reclaim the lead once both McLaren drivers pitted a second time and he controlled the pace to take the chequered flag and a second win at Monza.
The Monegasque, who questioned Ferrari’s choice to react to Norris’ first stop, has admitted that he was worried his prospects had been hindered stopping on Lap 16.
“Just as sweet as the 2019 one,” he said. “I thought the first one was always going to be more special if there was a second one ever happening, but it’s not the case.
“The second one just feels that special. Today I did not expect it going [into] the race.
“I thought that we’ll struggle a bit more compared to the McLaren, but also compared to the Mercedes that seemed to have a really good pace on Friday.
“However, after a few laps I saw and I felt the car was in a good place. Oscar maybe was a little bit quicker. It was difficult to see Lando’s pace as he was behind.
“Then once we got undercut, I thought, okay, maybe we are losing the win there, but then once both pitted, I actually picked up quite a lot of front grip having the free air in front.
“As they said, being the last car, I didn’t have much to lose by trying the one-stop, but we did a really, really good job with that front left, which has been very, very tricky for everybody.
“We had a lot of front braking but managed to take that front grip again and that helped us to win today.”
Leclerc has divulged that Ferrari’s pre-race plan was the one-stop, but reservations began to creep in when he saw the degradation Red Bull experienced on the Hards.
“Before the race, if you will have asked me, the one-stop was definitely the thing I wanted to do,” he commented.
“After 10 laps, I think we saw that Red Bull started to struggle with the front left on the Hard and there we started to doubt the one-stop.
“We thought that it would be a lot more difficult because we thought that the Hard would be a more difficult tyre to bring to the end.
“However, as soon as I put it, I still thought that this was a possibility.
“Especially, I think, when Oscar pitted two or three laps after that, I felt like I had more grip not having a car in front, especially on the front tyres.
“That’s where I really thought that the one-stop, we could make it work.”
Leclerc has conceded he is unsure whether Ferrari would’ve decided to be aggressive and revert to a two-stop had McLaren opted to retain track position with Piastri.
Asked what would have happened had Piastri remained on track on a one-stop, Leclerc replied: “To be honest, I think we’ll have waited maybe one or two laps more just to see.
“I felt like maybe in the last two, three laps before Oscar pitted, we were coming back a tiny bit, but I’ve got to check that again.
“But it was difficult for me to get closer than where I was, mostly because of the front left and the understeer that being behind Oscar, I had quite a bit too much understeer.
“So maybe we’ll have gone on the second, for the first, second stop and be a bit more aggressive to try and come back towards the end. But yeah, I don’t know.”
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