Charles Leclerc had to acknowledge his superiority in Max Verstappen in the sprint race during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend. The Monegask struggled to keep up with the Dutchman and was involved in a duel with Carlos Sainz. Afterwards he sounded confident towards Sunday and he now explains how that came about.
During the first two days in Austria, one of his better circuits on the calendar, Verstappen seemed to be firmly in control of the duel against Ferrari. The world champion showed himself supreme, grabbed pole position on Friday and also in the sprint race, the Scuderia with Leclerc in front could not come close to the driver born in Hasselt.
Confidence from the last few races
On Sunday, however, that full advantage of the Red Bull driver seemed to have disappeared and, especially on the harder tires, Leclerc was able to overtake Verstappen at a fast pace. After Saturday, the Monegask expressed all his confidence towards Sunday by saying ‘we are fast, we can get them’ and he explains how that came about. “I was quite confident. The pace in the last few races was strong,” says the Monegask.
Don’t just call
He continues his speech. “Of course I said that more than once on Saturday night. It’s not like I just said that, I believed it all five of the last races. So it was good to finally show it on Sunday and to have a flawless weekend. In the sprint, the speed was there. At the end it was difficult to estimate how much Max was pushing, but I had the feeling that we were the superior party. That’s why I had so much confidence.” he decides.
