Charles Leclerc was left quite literally speechless after Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with all of the attention having been on Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.
Leclerc claimed his first podium of the 2023 F1 season on Sunday thanks to a solid performance, although, he was ultimately unable to really compete with the Red Bull drivers when it came to race pace.
Over one lap, Leclerc had the edge, as proven by the fact he claimed pole position for the sprint race and the main race at the Baku City Circuit.
He ended up finishing Sunday’s race in third but 21 seconds behind winner Perez, in what he labelled as a “really lonely” afternoon.
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Given his uneventful drive in Baku, the Monegasque spent the majority of the post-race press conference looking around the room, with the bulk of the questions having been directed at the Red Bull drivers.
ESPNF1 posted a clip of Leclerc to Instagram, showing the 25-year-old eye-rolling several times, in the hope that he’d be asked a question.
Despite the quiet press conference, it was a significantly better weekend for Leclerc in Baku, given that he failed to finish two of the opening three races.
To highlight his struggles this season, Leclerc doubled his points tally after finishing second in Saturday’s sprint race, whilst he gained a further 15 points on Sunday.
As a result, the Ferrari driver is now sixth in the Drivers’ Championship on 28 points; however, he sits 65 points behind Verstappen.
Leclerc was pleased to have a “trouble-free weekend” and believed that the team “maximised everything”, although, there is no hiding that Red Bull have a significant advantage over the Italians.
“I’m here to win and obviously second or third is not what I want,” Leclerc said as per the official F1 website, “but considering the first three races that we had, scoring six points in three races, this weekend is better.
READ: Sergio Perez throws shade on Azerbaijan sprint
“We didn’t have any problems, it was a trouble-free weekend.
“When I look back at the weekend, I look at every session and I think we absolutely maximised everything in every single session.
“On that,” he continued,” we should be happy but there is still so much work to do.”