Charles Leclerc: “Mistakes happen, unfortunately today we made too many”

Charles Leclerc finally finished a Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday, but the Monegasque racer was left frustrated by the strategy calls that left him down in fourth having started from pole position.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver dominated the initial stages of the race when conditions were tricky due to the weather, but he found himself overtaken by Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Pérez when he made the switch from the full wet tyre to the intermediates.

It would get worse for Leclerc as a few laps later he was to pit again for slick tyres as the track continued to dry, and he ended up behind his team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. and the second Red Bull of title rival Max Verstappen.

With overtaking nearly impossible in Monaco, Leclerc was forced to settle for fourth, a position he was sure he did not deserve as Ferrari made too many wrong calls when it came to strategy.

“I’m disappointed to have lost this win and it’s a tough one to take, especially at home,” said Leclerc. “It will be important to understand exactly what happened to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.

“In the first pit stop, we went from extreme wets to Intermediates, and got undercut by Pérez. Three laps later, I stopped again, behind Carlos, and lost two more positions. It’s just impossible to overtake in Monaco without taking huge risks, so I stayed put to bring home as many points as possible and I guess that fourth is the best we could do under these circumstances.

“Mistakes happen, unfortunately today we made too many.  I love my team and I am sure that we will come back stronger.”

“We made the right call to go from wet tyres to slicks” – Carlos Sainz Jr.

Team-mate Sainz was one of those to profit from Leclerc’s misfortunes as the Spaniard finished second in the Monaco Grand Prix for a second consecutive season.

Sainz felt he had a shot at victory having taken the decision to ignore Ferrari’s radio call to switch to intermediates, instead waiting a couple more laps to make the direct switch to the dry tyres.

However, a small delay behind Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi cost him enough time to fall back behind Pérez when it mattered, and like Leclerc, he was forced to hold station due to the almost impossible shot at passing around the streets of the principality.

“It was a tough race but overall I cannot be too disappointed,” said Sainz. “We made the right call to go from wet tyres to slicks but unfortunately a lapped car in my out-lap cost me too much time and we missed the opportunity to take the lead.

“After my pit stop I re-joined right behind Pérez and that was it. Overtaking here is extremely challenging and with some wet patches off the racing line it was even more difficult today.

“It is a tough one to digest, because the win was there for the taking, but I gave it my all out there and we’ll come back stronger as a team for the next double header.”

Carlos Sainz Jr. finished second in Monaco for a second consecutive year – Credit: Scuderia Ferrari Press Office