Anxious Leclerc admits he still has 'a lot to learn'

Charles Leclerc says his eagerness to push his car to the limit at the outset at Portimão led to a "messy" weekend and to the realization that he still has "a lot to learn".

In Portugal, Leclerc launched his race from P8 on the grid, his worst position to date in 2021, which complicated a race that the Ferrari driver concluded in sixth place, but well adrift from midfield leader Lando Norris.

Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies noted Leclerc's relative under-performance in Q3 and inability to spice up his qualifying efforts with his usual dose of "magic".

"He has this capacity to extract two-tenths that we didn’t know were there in our car," said Mekies, quoted by Motorsport.com. "He does that on a regular basis. It’s nearly normal business for him to do that."

Leclerc acknowledged his inclination to outperform in qualifying but reckoned that the Saturday shootout at Portimão had delivered a few good lessons.

"I feel like yesterday shows also that I've got a lot to learn still," Leclerc said last weekend's race.

"Surely qualifying is one of my strengths. But yesterday, and overall, this weekend has been quite poor for me. So, very inconsistent. So there's still a lot to work on my side."

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Portimão's low-grip tarmac challenged all drivers last weekend, but for Leclerc, the problem was compounded by his hasty approach to qualifying.

"What I learned from this weekend is maybe I should have taken it step by step, especially on such a difficult weekend like this," he explained.

"I’ve tried to push the car to its limit straight away and it made my weekend very, very messy.

"If I look Friday and Saturday, they haven’t been very good days for me, and I was just all over the place and once in 10 laps I managed to do a very good lap, but I was just not consistent.

"Maybe in those conditions, I should have taken it a bit more step by step, which I did today [in the race]."

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