Charles Leclerc has spoken of his pride after his first point scoring finish in Formula One, with a terrific drive to P6 in Baku on Sunday.
Leclerc overtook Fernando Alonso on lap 26 as he made his way deep into the top 10, and the Monegasque spoke about what it meant to battle his childhood hero.
“I mean, Fernando was a driver I was watching when I was five years old in Monaco, so to race with him today is quite crazy,” Leclerc said.
“And, yeah, to have been able to fight with him – okay, we had a tyre advantage, but even at the end of the race we were looking strong compared to McLaren.”
The 20-year old also mentioned how his pace in Azerbaijan was comparable to some of the front-runners, especially in the early part of the race.
“I had that point of reference, they weren’t pulling away from us,” he claimed. “It was quite a big surprise in the car, seeing that.
“I also had Kimi behind, I think he had some damage, but we could keep him behind, which was also very, very strange.”