Despite an aggressive opening lap and a flawless performance at Monza, Charles Leclerc had to settle for fourth – but the Ferrari star was adamant: “We didn’t leave anything on the table.”
Ferrari simply lacked the raw pace to fight for the podium in front of their passionate Tifosi. Yet both Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc squeezed every ounce of performance from the SF-25.
Leclerc’s race started with fireworks as he muscled past championship leader Oscar Piastri into third. But the Ferrari couldn’t hold a candle to McLaren and Red Bull, and Piastri inevitably struck back to reclaim the spot.
Later hounded by George Russell’s Mercedes, Leclerc’s superior tyre management allowed him to escape and finish fourth at Ferrari’s home race.
Hamilton, meanwhile, charged from tenth on the grid thanks to his five-place penalty. The seven-time champion lit up the opening lap, carving past Yuki Tsunoda and Kimi Antonelli, then sweeping by Fernando Alonso and Gabriel Bortoleto. But when he came up behind Russell, he found no way through and had to settle for sixth.
“It’s not been an easy day,” Leclerc admitted. “In the first few laps I tried to fight with Piastri – unfortunately very quickly I overheated all my tyres, and I paid the price for the 10 laps after. Then I recovered and then the pace came back to me, but it was very difficult to manage that and to try and gain a position, especially when you don’t have the same pace as the guys in front, so I couldn’t do much more.”
Last year, Leclerc delivered a sensational Monza victory. This year, though the result stung, he made clear Ferrari left nothing undone.
“I gave it my all. I tried to hold on to P3 after overtaking at the start, but I lost grip with my tyres overheating and struggled to keep Oscar behind. In the end, we just didn’t find the pace to fight for the win today, but at the same time, we maximised our result and didn’t leave anything on the table.”
“Monza is always a special race for us. The incredible amount of support from our tifosi means so much to us and we’ll give everything to be back on the top step of the podium next year and make them proud,” Leclerc concluded.
