Leclerc delights Sauber with second consecutive top ten result

Charles Leclerc (MON) Sauber F1 Team C37 on the grid.

For many people, Charles Leclerc was the driver of the day after finishing in sixth place in Azerbaijan. And while the Spanish Grand Prix wasn't quite as good for the 20-year-old Monegasque, he still succeeded in picking up another championship point for the team.

Leclerc started the race in 14th place, but the first lap mayhem sparked by Romain Grosjean's spin enabled him to jump up to ninth place.

He ran as high as eighth during the race, before succumbing to overtaking moves from Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez before the end of the race.

“It is a great feeling to finish in the points again," he said after the finish.

"We have made considerable progress since the beginning of the season, and the whole team is eager to continue working hard in this direction.

"It was quite an interesting race, with tricky weather conditions making it challenging to drive, especially in terms of tyre management."

The next race on the calendar is a particularly important one for Leclerc, and one where he is determined to pull out all the stops to continue his points-winning run.

"It will be important to stay focussed," he said. "The next Grand Prix will be my home race in Monaco, and I am very excited to drive my first Formula 1 race there."

Race report: Commanding Hamilton comfortably reigns in Spain

Leclerc's team mate Marcus Ericsson also had a run in the top ten while undertaking an extended first stint in Barcelona. However, the Swede ended up outside the points by the finish.

"I was strong in the first half of the race with the medium tyres," he reported. "Then we were a bit unlucky with the virtual safety car coming right after our pit stop and that was really frustrating.

"In the second stint, I struggled more on the soft tyre."

In the end, Ericsson was pipped to 12th place by a late pass from Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley in the closing laps of the race.

"The result was a bit disappointing because we were in the fight and not too far off scoring points," he sighed. Overall it was a good race, I had very good fights and defended well.

"The fact that Charles scored points is very positive for the team," he added. "And from my side I need to bounce back in Monaco.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.