Charles Leclerc cut a frustrated figure as he missed an opportunity to claim victory at the Monaco GP.
Racing in front of his adoring home fans, the 24-year-old began the race on pole and was determined to win the iconic street race for the first time. Despite the torrential rain delaying a start to proceedings, Leclerc began the race well and looked to be in a strong position to take the chequered flag.
But disaster struck on lap 22 as the ace was called into the pits along with teammate Carlos Sainz. In a strange turn of events, as Leclerc approached the turn-off, his Ferrari race engineer started shouting "stay out, stay out!" Yet it was too late and so the Ferrari star was forced into a stop.
By the time the driver re-entered the race, Red Bull rivals Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez had gone past him. A furious Leclerc yelled: “Why?! What are you doing?!", who was also passed by his teammate. He went on to finish fourth behind Verstappen in third, while Perez went on to win and Sainz finished second.
Leclerc, usually so calm and measured, was very upset with the call made by his team and stressed the need for Ferrari to capitalise on promising opportunities. “Let down is not the word,” he said. “Some mistakes can happen but there have been too many mistakes today. We cannot do that, especially in the moment we are in now, when we are extremely strong.
“We need to take these opportunities, and it’s not even first to second, it’s first to fourth, because after the first mistake we’ve done another one.” Leclerc will remember Ferrari’s title challenges in 2017 and 2018 were derailed by driver and team errors, in addition to the dominance of Lewis Hamilton.
The motorsport star took ownership of the team’s mistakes and is aware these mistakes have devastating ramifications and cannot be repeated. “I think the first one was a very clear decision and a very wrong one, and from that moment onward the mess started," he added.
"I don’t know if it’s panic, I don’t know. We made mistakes and I take the blame for that and the responsibility. We will improve. But overall it’s been a difficult race.”
Hamilton meanwhile suffered a frustrating race as he finished P8, while George Russell crossed the line fifth and continued his impressive streak of finishing inside the top five in every race so far this season.
