After a disappointing P6 in qualifying, 9 tenths off the pole sitter Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc mentioned it will be a miracle to get up to the podium places as the McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull just showed more pace in Zandvoort than Ferrari.
However with the perfect strategy, far better race pace compared to qualifying, and an incredible management of tyres from Leclerc, it earned him the third step of the podium at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Leclerc started on the medium compound tyres and had a good start which helped him gain a position from Pérez into P5. The Monegasque then had an early pit stop to the hard compound tyres which eventually was the game changing strategy for the race.
Leclerc undercut both Russell and Piastri who had been just in front of him in the first stint. Despite having the Mclaren of Piastri tail on the rear of the Ferrari for nearly 30 laps, the 26-year-old managed to show perfect tyre management and defence and ultimately crossed the line third at Zandvoort.
After a tough Friday and Saturday, this was a rewarding finish for driver and team.
“[I’m] very, very surprised. I’m not very often happy with P3, but I think with today’s race we can be extremely happy with the job we’ve done on a difficult weekend for the team.
“We’ve been struggling from Friday until the race. In the race we found some more pace, executed a perfect strategy, we undercut two of our competitors and then we managed to keep them behind. So a really strong race for the team – [I’m] really happy to start the second half [of the season] like this.”
Leclerc added the importance of going for any available gap as he recalled his first lap with Perez.
“At the start I knew it was a big opportunity – I didn’t know that later on we would also have the pace to keep him behind. But I knew that the first lap was an opportunity for us to gain one or two positions.”
“I went for the pass, it all worked well, but never would I have thought I would stand on the podium after such a difficult weekend for the team.”
Despite the strong finish to the weekend, the Monaco GP winner admitted they will have to go and review the data to see the reasoning behind a drastic difference from Saturday to Sunday and to work on the issue to bring a more competitive car.
“I think the best question is also to understand why we were nine tenths off yesterday and certainly pretty strong today.
“The car is exactly the same. Yesterday we’ve been struggling like crazy. Today we were strong. And these are the kind of things that we’ve got to work on.
“I think as much as we analyze every bad surprises we have during a season, we also need to understand when we do something good. For now, I don’t think as a team we have the explanation. So it’s a great result. I’m really happy to be standing on the podium and I think it’s a really good surprise.”
