Leclerc, meanwhile, put his hands up for a mistake during the late downpour – even if he managed to work his way back up to eighth with moves on Hamilton and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
“For a big part of the race we thought P5 was secured,” he commented. “Then, obviously, the rain arrived and everything changed. The first one to blame is myself, after the mistake I’ve done exiting Turn 11.
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“We lost three or four positions, which was then very difficult to recover. We overtook one or two guys on track, but then we were a bit too late for the pit stop and then we lost a few other positions.
“It’s been a tricky day, overall, but we’ll look into it. It’s only the first race of the season… Yes, it’s not the first race we would have hoped for, but looking forward we need to re-motivate ourselves for Shanghai and recover from what was a disappointing first weekend.”
