“Everything went well. I think Charles [Leclerc] was a bit unlucky with the timing of the Safety Car, but nothing that we can do. In the end, we have just to improve on the quali pace, because when you start at P11 and P12, it’s much more difficult.”
Hamilton’s race was made by a long first stint on the hard tyre, while Leclerc started on the mediums – the team again asked their drivers to work together when they ended up running line astern. This time there was no confusion with any team orders as there was in Miami, although Leclerc did nearly fall foul of the stewards.
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He was battling Alex Albon late on when the Williams driver had fresher tyres, and as Albon tried to overtake he wound up in the gravel. Leclerc felt he had left room, but with the stewards potentially about to investigate, the team ordered the Monegasque driver to cede the position to avoid picking up a time penalty.
“We were clearly at risk. With five seconds, Charles would have been 10th or 11th. We had the feeling that they were more going in the direction of the penalty,” Vasseur added.
“That’s why we asked him to swap. I was a bit surprised with the fact that we had more overtaking than expected. When it’s difficult and you have almost only one corner to overtake, it’s a bit all-in on this one.”
