Charles Leclerc says he misjudged how the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was going to play out and thought he would be capable of re-pass Oscar Piastri to beat the McLaren after being overtaken.
Piastri had dropped almost six seconds adrift of Leclerc previous to the pit stops in Baku, however closed up on the out lap on laborious tires and rapidly pulled off a scientific transfer into Flip 1 to take the lead. Leclerc says he might see Piastri would possibly attempt to overtake on that event however that he wasn’t overly nervous, believing the race would come again in the direction of him afterward.
“Probably not unexpectedly, as a result of he wasn’t fully straight behind me,” Leclerc stated. “He was a little bit bit on the left. So I might see in my mirrors that he was there and that it was a risk for him to go there. However I couldn’t actually be tremendous aggressive. I nonetheless had chilly tires. I used to be actually struggling to get these tires into temperature.
“I simply thought it wasn’t that a lot of a giant deal if he would overtake me at that time of the race as a result of the race was nonetheless lengthy and the DRS would assist me to remain inside a second of him after which as soon as my tires can be in temperature I might overtake him once more. However that was a misjudgment from my aspect.”
Piastri was in a position to preserve Leclerc at bay after which pulled away from the Ferrari within the closing laps, with Leclerc believing the distinction in automotive set-ups additionally performed a component in him being unable to regain the lead.
“It’s been a fairly irritating race. We ran two totally different configurations. They’d a decrease downforce package deal. We had a bit extra downforce, which made us fairly fast within the citadel part. Nevertheless, on all of the straights they had been flying. And that’s in all probability the place I misplaced the race. I misjudged that.
“And when Oscar overtook me into Flip 1, I used to be not too nervous. I simply wished to remain throughout the DRS, preserve my tires, and try an overtake afterward. Nevertheless, this chance by no means actually arose once more, simply because we had been too sluggish within the straights. Yeah, that was a small misjudgment, which had a giant consequence.
“So typically it hurts, and it does, however it’s the way in which it’s. However, it’s been a fairly good final couple of races when it comes to efficiency. This weekend hasn’t been nice, as a result of clearly we’ve received Carlos [Sainz] that was in a superb place that didn’t handle to complete the race. However throughout the crew, we’re in a superb place in a superb temper and we have to preserve pushing in that route.”
