Charles Leclerc achieves a feat in the streets of Baku
The streets of Baku definitely suit Charles Leclerc: the Sauber driver managed to score his first points in F1 thanks to a very impressive sixth place at the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Just a year ago, Charles Leclerc arrived in an extremely heavy emotional personal context after the pain of losing his father a few days earlier. He then had an incredible weekend, securing the pole position and two victories during the weekend.
A year later, the F2 champion achieved another feat at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. He had already delivered a very strong qualifying session, starting from 13th on the grid, his best position since the beginning of the season. This even whetted his appetite for Sunday’s race as his position offered him the prospect of finishing in the points.
The Monegasque did not miss his chance to shine, delivering a beautiful race without any errors throughout the 51 laps of this very tricky circuit. Right from the start, he avoided getting caught in various collisions and immediately placed in the top 10. Although he had to logically yield to Kimi Räikkönen, he then had little difficulty keeping up with the pace of the Ferrari driver and even the two Red Bulls.
He not only executed a race of patience but also of attack as he managed to overtake Lance Stroll’s Williams and Fernando Alonso’s McLaren fair and square. During the final race restart, he also showed wisdom by not defending his fifth place at all costs against Carlos Sainz, who was significantly faster in his Renault.
He was therefore extremely happy as he dismounted to embrace his team. Having outrageously dominated his last two championships, he was very emotional when commenting on this magnificent sixth place: « It tastes like victory. I have my head in the clouds. It was an extraordinary race. We seized the opportunity. We weren’t that far from the Ferraris. I knew I had to be there when the opportunity presented itself, and we seized it. » To find a Sauber in a similar position, you have to go back to that achieved by Felipe Nasr at the Russian Grand Prix in 2015.
In this context, it is only fair that internet users voted for the young Monegasque as the driver of the day.
This performance is reminiscent of Jules Bianchi’s in the streets of Monaco in 2014. At the time, the young Frenchman, who was a mentor and close friend to Charles Leclerc, also achieved a feat by scoring two points for ninth place in his modest Marussia.
