Leclerc admits U.S. GP win hopes hinged on expectation of a late-race Antonelli fade

Charles Leclerc admits he thought he had a chance of winning the United States Grand Prix, as he expected Kimi Antonelli’s one-stop strategy to be tough to execute.

Red Bull committed to a one-stop strategy early on, with Max Verstappen – who started on soft tires – pitting for another set of softs after a relatively short first stint. Ferrari followed suit, with Leclerc switching to mediums at his first stop but always planning to fit the hard later on, and the Monegasque started lapping 1.5s quicker than Antonelli for a spell before the championship leader stabilized the gap to win by 13s.

“I enjoyed it,” Leclerc said. “The start was fun, then later on with Lando [Norris] and Max again was quite fun. So, it's one of those races where you're not getting too bored inside the cockpit, and there's something to play for.

“I even thought the victory was possible at one point when I saw Kimi going for the one-stop. Based on our numbers, he would start to struggle a bit more towards the end of the race. He never really struggled towards the end of the race, but it's been a fun race. A shame just that we came short of winning.”

Leclerc cleared both Norris and Verstappen in his final stint, but while he says he took satisfaction from the way he raced the two world champions, he felt that also hurt his chances of putting pressure on Antonelli.

“The hard was just a really good tire, and I could push on it quite a lot. So I was more interested in trying to... I kept asking my engineer what the pace of Kimi was, but I was probably a bit too optimistic. I still wanted to give it a shot, but I probably lost a bit too much time with Max and Lando. Even with free air, I don't think I would have got to Kimi. He was just too quick today.

“If you look at FP1, FP2 and FP3, we were very strong. If you look at qualifying, at the end of the day in Q3, it was extremely difficult to bring the tires up to temperature, and we probably lost a shot at the victory there. But today Kimi was very strong, so as a whole weekend, I think we're just not robust enough.”