Ferrari Formula 1 junior Charles Leclerc says that he is “a little bit disappointed” with his French Grand Prix result despite propelling his Sauber to a points finish.
Leclerc became the first Sauber driver since 2015 to reach Q3 in qualifying on Saturday. He beat both Haas’s to line-up eighth on the grid.
In the race, Leclerc was as high as sixth before slipping back to an eventual 10th place finish, scoring one point.
He had run in ninth prior to his one and only pitstop, but made a mistake by running wide and into the runoff area at Turn 2. This allowed Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg to pass – a position which Leclerc ultimately failed to recover.
“I’m a little bit disappointed with myself as I think overall we did a great race, myself and the team, but I did a mistake following Kevin [Magnussen],” Leclerc admitted.
“I wanted to put pressure on him, I came back in the DRS zone and lost the car in Turn 2 being too close to him and then Nico Hulkenberg overtook us so we lost quite a bit of time there and lost one place.
“So it’s a bit of a shame but we’ve had a smooth run in the last four or five races without many mistakes, so sometimes it happens and I will try to learn from it to get better.”
Reigning Formula 2 champion Leclerc’s recent form has seen him scoop four points finishes in the last five races. Team-mate Marcus Ericsson, who is in his fifth season in F1, has only one top 10 finish in 2018.
Leclerc is now level on points with Force India’s Esteban Ocon in 13th place in the standings and is being linked with a promotion to a Ferrari race seat in 2019 as a replacement for Kimi Raikkonen.
His current team boss Fredrick Vasseur said in an interview with Autosport; “It’s much better to have this feeling that you could lose something than you would like to have something. It’s a great feeling.”
