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Charles Leclerc saved his tyres early in his stint to counter Fernando Alonso's wily strategy at the 2023 Azerbaijan GP on Sunday. The Ferrari driver started from pole position. However, while both Red Bull drivers made short work of Leclerc, the Monagesque ran strongly in P3.
Despite a late race charge from Alonso, Leclerc held fort to secure his first podium of the season. When asked by former world champion Damon Hill on how he was able to keep out Alonso, the Ferrari driver said:
"He was pushing. I knew what his intentions were at the beginning, because he always does that – trying to keep the tyres at the beginning of the stint and pushing at the end. So I tried to do the same. And at the end, it was close but not enough for Fernando today."
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Talking about his feelings after securing his first podium of the season, he said:
"Honestly, the feeling is a little bit better, but when I see the gap – and I'm pretty sure that when you have this type of gap, you're probably not pushing 100% – so yeah, we don't really know how much we have closed the gap. The feeling is a little bit better, but again also the Aston Martin was really quick today. So we still have a lot of work."
Red Bull are in another league - Charles Leclerc
When asked why he had not put up much of a fight against the two Red Bulls early on in Baku, Leclerc said that it did not make sense, as he risked damaging his tyres by doing so:
"They are in another league once it comes to the race. So, the really good lap managed to put us in front, but then over 51 laps, it was just not possible. They have so much more pace than we do in race pace.
"So yeah, as I said yesterday, I think they found something that we didn't yet. And that's where our focus is at the moment. Everybody's working flat out to try and understand what we can do in the races, especially to just get more performance."
Baku marked the Monagesque's first pole and podium of the season. He will look to build on that at the next race in Miami.
