Ferrari delighted with Leclerc's first grand prix

Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto has insisted he is happy with Charles Leclerc following his first "very strong" race for the Italians in Australia.

Leclerc managed to qualify in fifth position and then end the race in the same position in his first outing for Scuderia.

It wasn't the perfect start for the 21-year-old, but an eye-catching second half to the race saw him catch up his team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who was in P4, before being told to hold on by his team.

Ferrari ended the race almost a minute behind the winning Mercedes driven by Valtteri Bottas, but Binotto insisted he is "happy" with the way Leclerc has settled in at last season's runners-up.

"I'm happy with the way he's behaving as a team player," the Ferrari boss told Crash.net. "Not only as a driver, he's very helpful for the team but as well he has a very bold claim to do his best, pushing hard on the engineers to try to prove himself and for a better car.