Leclerc 'believed in the win until the end' at Spa

Charles Leclerc believes he could win the Belgian Grand Prix right to the end of Sunday’s race as he felt Ferrari exceeded its own expectations once again.

The winner of the British Grand Prix was running in third place before the pit stop phase at Spa-Francorchamps, and took advantage of a Virtual Safety Car to jump into the lead. After holding Kimi Antonelli off for a number of laps, the Italian overtook Leclerc but could not pull clear and the pair were separated by less than two seconds at the flag.

“I believed in the win until the end,” Leclerc said. “We had a little bit of luck, obviously, with the VSC at the right time for us, but the pace was relatively strong. There were five or six laps on the hard where I was struggling with the front axle, and then it came back a little bit. I feel better with the car. There’s still some work to do, but surely it’s a step forward.

“On Thursday, I think we kind of expected to be very far back, maybe to the extent of four or five tenths. In qualifying, that was true, but in the race we were a bit closer than we thought. So, it’s been positive.

“I think on two tracks which, on paper, were quite bad for us, we won and we finished second, with a little bit of luck, but still, I think it was a good effort from the team. On two tracks that didn’t fit our car particularly well, we’ve scored good points.”

Leclerc’s back-to-back strong results come after he says he made improvements with his driving at Silverstone, but he admits the 2026 regulations make it tough to feel fully comfortable.

“I’m confident in saying that I made a step forward” he said. “Whether I’m at the level where I want to perform, not yet. There are still things in the car that I need to drive around. I cannot drive completely naturally, and that is slowing me down in some parts of the race.

“So, there are still things that I’ve got to work on in order to be better. But surely it was a step forward, and for that I’m happy. I’ll continue with the one-race-at-a-time approach because, with these cars, it’s very difficult to be confident that if one race weekend goes well, the other one will, because it relies on such small details.

“With what you do with your driving, it’s never a given that you get the same deployment from one lap to the other, and that’s maybe the frustrating bit about these cars.”