Charles Leclerc’s glass is almost full
43 points collected out of 50 available in the last two Sundays and Charles Leclerc relaunches himself in the standings chasing his rivals. A decidedly positive result for Scuderia Ferrari, also because it came on the two tracks that more than any others, looking at the calendar and at least until the updated engine with the second ADUO token debuts, made the engineers in Maranello fear due to the well-known and documented power deficit of the power unit. The Monegasque, however, could also have aimed for something more: partly thanks to the stroke of luck of the stop under Virtual Safety Car conditions which gave him the chance to lead the Belgian GP for a good ten laps, and partly because even after the catch and overtake, Andrea Kimi Antonelli did not get away, instead staying within reach of the number 16 Red until the finish line.
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The proverbial glass, in short, is almost full, especially thinking about the more favorable tracks – two of these are next on the calendar, Budapest and Zandvoort – where the SF-26 could really think about playing its cards. And even if Leclerc himself plays down expectations, trying not to raise the level too much and recalling the recent setback in Monte Carlo (another track where the Prancing Horse was supposed to arrive as a big favorite), at the same time he admits he definitely thought about the possibility of beating Antonelli again in the battle for victory at Spa.
A bit more luck after Silverstone…
“Yes, of course I thought about winning – said Charles Leclerc at the end of the race to the microphones of the French pay-tv Canal+ – and I told myself that we already had quite a bit of luck at Silverstone so… Why not have it a second time? But anyway, Kimi was too fast. Then I believed until the end because it’s true that when he overtook me, I stayed in his slipstream and on a circuit like this when you are in the slipstream of another car you have an advantage. I didn’t expect to gain so much in terms of performance, because I thought Kimi would go away very fast, but in the end I managed to stay with him for another five or six laps”.
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The Ferrari driver also analyzed in detail the great start that saw him move from fourth to second position in just a few meters, on the Kemmel straight, taking advantage of an unexpected slowdown of the Mercedes-powered cars: “The first lap is tough and honestly I didn’t quite understand what happened. However, the engine worked well, I immediately overtook George and then also Max on the left. I just hoped he wouldn’t move because it could have become risky. After that, we had some difficulties for five or six laps with the Hard tires, and we will have to analyze what happened since I had a lot of understeer in turns 5, 6, and 7”. “Then the situation improved, but we still didn’t have Antonelli’s performance”, concluded Charles Leclerc.
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