Leclerc's regrets after his 7th place in the championship

Arriving in Abu Dhabi during the week, Charles Leclerc was the big favorite to finish 5th in the 2021 Drivers ranking. For this, the representative of the Team Ferrari had to secure a few points in the hope that Lando Norris et Carlos Sainz, his closest pursuers, did not achieve a good result in order to keep them at bay.

Unfortunately, everything did not go as planned in the race. In difficulty at the end of his first stint, the Monegasque then took advantage of a Virtual Safety Car to make a second stop but was unable to take advantage of it. Falling back down the rankings, Charles Leclerc was able to re-enter the Top 10 at the end of the race but the damage was already done.

« I'm not very happy, he regretted at the microphone of Canal +. It's like that. We tried to make a move with the first Safety Car (it was a Virtual Safety Car in reality. Editor’s note) by stopping to put on new medium tires but we didn't save that much time honestly. I had more trouble than anything else. It's a shame. We lost the championship at that time and we had a bad race. It's like that. »

Disappointed by the final outcome, Charles Leclerc nevertheless showed himself to be a good sport towards his teammate Carlos Sainz who took 5th place among the Drivers. “ Well done to Carlos who took the podium and did a great job today (Sunday) and throughout the season. I hope next year we will have a car to fight a little higher."