“I don’t want to jinx it so, for sure, there’s lots of positives to take away from today and we had pace, so we really need to dissect and understand where and why,” the Briton said. “I did think we would make an improvement this weekend with something we’re trying to fix, and I think there’s more to come, but the set-up was really good.
“The car felt pretty mega set-up wise, and the strategists, the team did a fantastic job with strategy calls, with the pit stops, so overall mega job from Ferrari.”
HIGHLIGHTS: Relive Verstappen’s breathtaking first-lap overtake on Piastri en route to stellar Imola victory
On the other side of the garage, Leclerc also put in a feisty drive to move up from P11 to P6, having just lost out on P5 during a battle with Williams’ Alex Albon on the final lap. The Monegasque was left disappointed by the result, though, after the timing of the Virtual Safety Car and full Safety Car phases failed to go in his favour.
“I was very frustrated with the Safety Car, especially because the first one was in completely the wrong place for my strategy, [then] the second one was horrible because I couldn’t take it because I had no tyres left, so it was just a frustrating day,” Leclerc conceded.
