Leclerc concedes Red Bull race supremacy in Baku

Ferrari Charles Leclerc had to admit that Red Bull was in a different league in Baku for today's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Monegasque had taken pole position for both the sprint and main race this weekend, only to miss out on victory in both to Sergio Perez.

It came as no surprise to Leclerc, who - despite the single lap advantage that Ferrari had shown in qualifying - knew that they had nothing to match the straight line speed of the RB19 down the long main straight.

"They are in another league when it comes to the race," Leclerc told the media in parc ferme after the end of the race which saw him finish third, a long way off Perez and his team mate Max Verstappen.

Read also: Perez too quick for Verstappen to handle in Baku

“The really good [qualifying] lap managed to put us at the front, but over 51 laps it was just not possible," he conceded. "They have so much more pace than we do in race pace.

"That’s where we need to make the biggest step forwards. In qualifying over one lap, with the juice of the tyres taking a bit more risk, we managed to do two poles.

"I think they've found something [over the winter] we didn’t yet, and that’s where our focus is at the moment," he said. "Everybody is working flat out to try and understand what we can do in the races, especially to just get more performance.”

Even though he missed out on victory this weekend, he can take some solace in clinching his first podium of the season, after a troubled start to the season that has seen him finish in the points only once before Baku.

“I’m here to win and obviously second, third, is not what I want," Leclerc said. "[But] considering the first three races which we’ve had, scoring six points in three races, this weekend is better.

"We didn’t have any problems, it was a trouble-free weekend," he added. "I think when I look back at the weekend [and] every single session, I think we maximised absolutely everything.

"So on that we should be happy," he agreed. "On the other hand, there is still work to do."

“Honestly the feeling is a little bit better," he insisted. But when I see the gap – and I’m pretty sure when you have this you’re not pushing at 100 per cent – we don’t really know how much we’ve cut the gap.

Once again, Ferrari also came under pressure from behind with Aston Martin - and Fernando Alonso in particular - continuing to impress. "I think Aston Martin is quicker than us and has a better car than us in race pace," he said.

“[Fernando] was pushing. I knew what his intention were at the beginning, because he always does that - trying to keep the tyres at the beginning of the stint and trying to push at the end - so I was trying to do the same.

“At the end it was close but not enough for Fernando today," he smiled. "[But] the Aston Martin was really quick today, so we still have a lot of work to do.

“We have some upgrades coming [in Miami] but I don’t expect miracles. Hopefully, these small changes will keep them behind.”

Leclerc's team mate Carlos Sainz started from fourth but was overtaken by Alonso n the race and crossed the line in fifth place just ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Sainz admitted that it had been a damage control weekend and that he was struggling to get comfortable with this year's Ferrari.

"Today there was just no confidence to push in the car, to get close the walls," he explained. "When you feel the car very loose around Baku, it just is what it is. We will now focus on what happened.

“I think we’ve extracted performance out of the car but if you look in detail at our race pace, compared to the Astons and the Red Bulls, they still have relatively much better race pace than qualifying pace compared to us.

“This is very high up on our list of things that we want to understand why, because definitely the points are on Sunday and that’s where you want to be quicker.”

"We will now focus on what happened. We will finally have a bit of time to settle down and analyse what could have been, and I’m sure in Miami we will be back on form."

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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.