Charles Leclerc happy to hold onto podium in Belgium after ‘high pressure’ from Max Verstappen

Charles Leclerc was relieved to keep hold of third place at the Belgian Grand Prix, with the Ferrari driver admitting that the “pressure is high” when being chased down by the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.

After lining up in P3 on the grid for the race – which faced a delayed start owing to heavy rainfall at Spa-Francorchamps – Leclerc had Verstappen on his tail from the start during the intermediate tyres stint.

Following the switchover to the slicks, the two drivers pitted on the same lap and Leclerc again emerged ahead of Verstappen, meaning that he continued to face pressure from the four-time World Champion right until the chequered flag.

After ultimately crossing the line by 1.546s from Verstappen, Leclerc was pleased to keep the Dutchman behind him throughout.

“Max was behind the whole race within two seconds so it’s never easy,” the Monegasque said. “I knew the first part of the race was the trickiest one for us because we maybe didn’t have the downforce that McLaren or Max had, as they compromised a bit on Qualifying to be better in the rain today.

“But luckily it dried up pretty quickly and the pace was good, but still Max was right behind the whole race, so I’m pretty happy that we managed to keep that third place.”

At one stage in the Grand Prix, Leclerc told his race engineer Bryan Bozzi that he wanted to be left alone.

Reflecting on the challenge of keeping Verstappen at bay, the 27-year-old conceded: “The pressure is high, especially in those conditions because as soon as you are 10/15 centimetres out [from] the right line then it’s wet or greasy, and then you can lose the line and do a very big mistake.

“At one point I just told Bryan to leave me alone, but obviously he is trying to give me the most information – sometimes I need them, today I didn’t and I let him know.”

Following a good showing for Ferrari’s new upgrade in Spa, Leclerc is hopeful that there will be more to come next weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

“I hope so,” the driver from Monaco explained. “Honestly, we’ve had what we expected with this upgrade and that’s really positive. We need to keep learning about how to maximise this new upgrade.

“It’s still pretty new, but it’s a good first weekend and I’m happy that we are on the podium to thank the whole team back in Maranello. We keep pushing and hopefully we’ll put soon a bit more pressure on the McLarens.”