Leclerc: The team told me there was no point trying to catch up

Charles Leclerc says he will come back stronger after a disappointing weekend in Azerbaijan. The Monegasque driver appeared to be favourite for pole but crashed in Q2, effectively ending his hopes of winning.

The Ferrari man recovered from eighth on the grid to take fifth but lost vital points to his teammate Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

While Leclerc's race was a recovery job, he said he would need to look over the data and find out why the team left him out for so long in the first stint of the race which left him so far behind the leaders.

"I believe there is a reason for [staying out long]. I need to look at the data before commenting because they have a lot more data than I do in the car.

"I felt a lost a bit of time once Valtteri, Lewis and Seb passed me. We need to look into that.

"I asked is there any possibility for us to come back, they told me no. After that there was no more trying to push to catch them, but just to try and save the tyres and do the fastest lap when I had the opportunity.

"On the medium we were very, very strong and that's what the leaders did their longest stint on. It could have been a very positive race but to be honest there is nothing wrong with Ferrari, just myself yesterday.

"I did a mistake yesterday and will come back from it stronger."