The word lonely typically comes with a negative connotation. However, for Charles Leclerc on Sunday at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, he endured perhaps the most positive lonely feeling anyone could have during the United States Grand Prix.
Starting from fourth for the second Formula 1 race of the season in the United States, Leclerc had a precise game plan heading into the first corner to start of the race — lay back and watch.
Championship rivals Lando Norris and Max Verstappen duked it out on the front row as Verstappen forced Norris wide out of the turn, allowing the seas to part for Leclerc’s Ferrari.
“I kind of expected that this was going to happen,” Leclerc smirked. “I knew that Max would go all-in into turn one. I knew Lando would try and do absolutely everything to defend to Max. So, I went in a little bit wide to prepare the exit and that was a winning bet, which helped me quite a bit for the rest of the race because then I had free air and we were very, very fast in that first stint.
“Then it was all about managing the gaps. A lonely race, but I hope we can have other very lonely race(s) in the future because it’s a good feeling.”
The result was a dominant victory for Ferrari as Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz secured a one-two finish at the 3.41-mile road course with Verstappen a distant 19-plus seconds behind.
With five races remaining in the F-1 season, Leclerc and Ferrari are eying both the drivers’ and constructors’ championship. However, both will take an upward climb to accomplish.
Ferrari is 48 points behind McLaren in the constructors’ battle while Leclerc is a distant 79 markers behind Verstappen.
“Constructors, we are in it, it’s an optimistic target because we are still quite far away from McLaren, 48 points I believe,” Leclerc said. “So, there’s still quite a few points to recover. However, the drivers’ championship is… I feel like we don’t really rely (not) only on our result, but a little bit of luck of Max not probably having the result that we would expect from him.
“I cannot rely on that. The drivers (championship) is going to be more complicated, the constructors is possible. Optimistic but possible.”