Leclerc drops initial F-bomb reaction, explains giving it all in Las Vegas

17:55, 23 Nov

byKada Sarkozi

Despite not scoring the result he had hoped for, Charles Leclerc was satisfied with his performance at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

"I was pushing 200 % the whole race. I don't think I left anything on the table."

- Charles Leclerc

The Monegasque driver crossed the finish line originally in sixth place in Sin City. Kimi Antonelli had a five-second time penalty, but the young Italian could just finish ahead of Ferrari by around two tenths after the penalty was applied.

When told by his race engineer Bryan Bozzi in the car, Leclerc initially reacted by saying "f*** that," but after the session, he explained there was not much more he could do.

He told media in Las Vegas: "Again, I gave 100% until the end, and there wasn't anything I left on the table, so no [chance of getting closer to him]."

Leclerc also explained this was still a hard result to take. He added: "It's still very frustrating to only finish P6 (before the two McLaren's disqualification, ed.) when you start P9. On the other hand, if I look at my race, it's been a bit of a crazy race.

"I had to take massive risks to overtake because we were very, very slow in the straights.

"On that side it was an entertaining race, but then I don't really understand what happened around the pit stop, but it seems that we've lost quite a few places.

"So we'll look back at that, whether we could have done something better there."

Leclerc driving the SF-25 in Las Vegas - Photo: Race Pictures

Leclerc gave it all

The Ferrari driver continued: "I was pushing 200% the whole race. I don't think I left anything on the table.

"No, I just think they had a bit more pace towards the end, but I also had pushed a lot behind them to try and get as close as possible. I had to because otherwise I would lose DRS and without the DRS I was that slow.

"So it was a bit of a tough race to manage, but I don't think I could have done anything better. It was just a bit of a shame to get stuck behind Oscar [Piastri] that had the DRS exactly at the point where I was catching up Oscar. And that made it very difficult for us."

After Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were disqualified, the Ferrari driver was promoted to finish fourth in Las Vegas, while Lewis Hamilton finished eighth starting from last place on the grid.

In the battle for second place in the constructors' standings, Ferrari scored the fewest points of the three teams fighting for that goal. As a result, the Italians now trail Mercedes by 53 points.

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