'At least it's a podium': Leclerc puzzles over rivals' pace

After dominating the timesheets in Friday's practice sessions at Ferrari's home race in Imola, Charles Leclerc was clearly somewhat disappointed to lose out to Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

However the Monegasque felt that Ferrari had put in a strong showing across the weekend having arrived at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari with a hefty package of upgrades for the SF-24.

Leclerc felt that there was something that Red Bull and McLaren had come up with to get the edge when it came to the race, and that the team would review the data to see what that was - and come up with a plan to address it.

“At least it’s a podium,” Leclerc told the media in parc ferme after coming third in the race, seven seconds behind Verstappen and Norris. “It's incredible to be on the podium with all the Tifosi here at Imola.

“But of course I’m only very happy when I win, and today we didn’t quite make it."

• Read also: Verstappen holds on to beat charging Norris

Leclerc pressed Norris for second place at the start going into the first corner but was fended off by the McLaren driver, who took his maiden victory in the Miami GP last time out.

After pitting for hard tyres for the second half of the race, Leclerc looked to have the edge on Norris and closed up to within DRS activation distance in the final laps only for it to go wrong when he slid across Variante Alta on lap 48.

That released Norris to take off in pursuit of Verstappen who was struggling on ageing tyres. A nail-biting lunge to the line saw Verstappen hold on to victory by seven tenths, while Leclerc was far behind.

“We were very fast at the beginning of the stint with the hards. I started to push to try and put some pressure on Lando, but later on they were incredibly quick," Leclerc acknowledged.

Leclerc and his team mate Carlos Sainz had both been out-qualified by the two McLaren cars on Saturday, although Oscar Piastri was subsequently given a grid penalty for impeding Kevin Magnussen and started behind the Ferraris.

Asked why he felt McLaren had been quicker and had the edge in terms of pure speed at Imola this weekend, Leclerc suggested that they had lacked a bit yesterday in qualifying but "the race pace today was quite strong".

"After looking, we missed on the front straight especially [in qualifying]," he admitted. "We’ll look into it. But on the rest of the lap we were quick, so it’s looking good for the rest of the season.”

“I think our race pace is very, very strong,” he told Sky Sports F1 afterward. “I’m more optimistic than yesterday looking back at the qualifying because this is where I think we are lacking on a weekend like this.

“What makes me optimistic is that if I look back at the data, I thought we were losing in turn two, three, four, which would have been tyre related again, but it wasn’t the case.

"We lost everything in the straights, and they are doing something weird with the energy, engine-wise, McLaren and Red Bull," he said. “We’ve got to look into it, but nothing that isn't possible to change.

“So we’ll look into that, and once we fix that I think we’ve got a real shot of going back on the top step for the podium," he concluded.

While he regretted missing out on a win at Ferrari's home, next week sees him heading to his own home race in Monaco.

“Monaco is going to be a very special of course, as special as here at Imola," he said. “There's a lot of red, and it's always amazing to see that."

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