Leclerc 'missed magic' in Portugal and is hard on himself

Charles Leclerc didn't have his best weekend in Portugal. On Saturday he was beaten for the first time in qualifying by his new teammate Carlos Sainz and had to start from eighth place, while earlier this season he always managed to start from fourth. In the race he managed to sneak into sixth place, but Lando Norris' McLaren in fifth was a bridge too far.

Usual magic

Laurent Mekies, Ferrari's sporting director, commented that Leclerc seemed "less comfortable" and lacked the usual "magic" to outperform the car. " He has the ability to grab two tenths that we didn't know were in our car," Mekies tells Motorsport.com. "He does that on a regular basis. It's almost a normal thing for him to do."

Leclerc was, as we have come to expect from him, quite hard on himself again: "I feel that qualifying also shows that I still have a lot to learn. Qualifying is one of my strong points anyway. But yesterday, and in general, this weekend has been pretty bad for me, very inconsistent. So there's still a lot to work on my side."

Step by step

Nevertheless, the young Ferrari driver has already learned something from the race in Portugal: "What I learned from this weekend is that maybe I should have taken it step by step, especially in such a difficult weekend like this. If I look at Friday and Saturday, they have not been very good days for me and I was just all over the place."