Formula One: lonely third was best Ferrari could do at Azerbaijan Grand Prix, says Leclerc
- Leclerc claims Italian team’s first podium appearance of the F1 season
- Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen claim first and second in Baku
Ferrari are still too slow to win and third place behind the Red Bulls in Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix was the best they could have hoped for, Charles Leclerc said after securing his team’s first podium appearance of the Formula One season.
Leclerc started from pole position, and had finished second in the Saturday sprint from the same grid slot, but was unable to stay ahead for more than three laps.
Sergio Perez won from third on the grid, with Red Bull teammate and world champion Max Verstappen second. Perez’s victory was his fifth on street circuits, not counting Saturday’s sprint win.
Red Bull’s roll through 2023 after four races now reads four wins plus Saturday’s sprint, three poles, and three one-twos.
Verstappen leads the drivers’ championship by just six points ahead of the fifth round of the record 23-race season in Miami.
“That was the absolute maximum I could do today, or that we could do as a team,” said the Monegasque, who finished 21 seconds behind race winner Sergio Perez in what he said was his “loneliest ever” race.