Leclerc clears tension with Hamilton after action-packed Miami Grand Prix

Having endured a tough weekend in Miami, Ferrari Charles Leclerc has cleared the air with his team-mate Lewis Hamilton after swapping position with the seven-time F1 champion twice during the 57-lap race.

Ferrari appeared to have lacked speed over the Miami Grand Prix weekend, having struggled for one-lap pace in qualifying. Although their race pace looked better, it was still not enough to compete for top positions.

Having only qualified 12th in the main qualifying, Lewis Hamilton started on the hard tyre. Although the Briton appeared to have reasonable race pace, he spent the opening stages of the race behind the Haas of Esteban Ocon, losing the connection to the front of the field.

The seven-time F1 champion managed to overtake the Frenchman after an intense fight, and he could then capitalize on the virtual safety car interruption which allowed him to gain around eight second compared to a standard pit visit.

His team-mate Charles Leclerc started on the mediums, and was stuck behind the Williams of Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon during the opening stint. He also wanted to make use of the virtual safety car to complete a cheap pit stop, but the lights went green when he entered the pit lane of the Miami International Autodrome.

After the pit stops, Leclerc overtook his former team-mate Sainz, but he found Hamilton right behind himself. The Briton asked to be let past, given he was on the faster mediums at the point, and Ferrari allowed it after hesitating for three laps. As Hamilton could not motor on, Leclerc was allowed to retake the position with the Scuderia ending the first of three US races in a distant P7 and P9.

Reflecting on the weekend, the Monegasque has revealed that he never felt himself comfortable in his SF25 which came as a surprise after the last three rounds in which he made progress with the car.

"It has been a tough weekend for us. Over the last three races, we have made some good progress, but I just didn’t have that same feeling in the car this weekend and we need to understand why.

"Today, our pace wasn’t there on the first stint, then on the second stint I was managing at the start, after which I had to run in dirty air. I pushed again towards the end, but it just wasn’t enough. I will continue to always give everything I’ve got and we have to come together as a team and work on making more progress."

"We need to do better, that's for sure. Today was not ideal and was far from maximising our potential, but we've got to regroup as a team and be better."

Commenting on swapping positions with Hamilton two times, Leclerc indicated that Ferrari needs to plan these situation better in order not to lose race time.

“I just think we maybe should have discussed a little bit more before doing the swap because obviously you are trying to go to the end with those tyres, so I'm trying to do a good job with my tyres and then everything is tricky, and I did not expect Carlos [Sainz] to be so close.

“All of this made the situation a bit trickier, but again I think there's plenty for us to look at. As I said, we need to do a step, and we need to be robust enough that whenever we find ourselves in those situations we do better.

“I think we will be quite aligned on the fact that today wasn't the Sunday we wanted and even though the pace is not there, I don't think there was any miracles. If everything had gone perfectly maybe we would have finished in front of Kimi, but that's it.”

Leclerc himself gave a couple of feisty radio messages about hurting his tyres once in the dirty air of Hamilton, but he did concede that the pair scrapping for the minor points positions also played a part.

Pushed on to reveal why he sounded frustrated on the radio, the Monegasque has conceded that it was not because of the intra-team battle, but it was the result of his frustration due to the lack of pace.

“There is the frustration already that I was fighting for P8 at the time and I was not making any gains,” he added.

“I was really struggling with the car, so there's the frustration of that and then all the rest, it all adds up. The radio is not always the real picture.

“I was obviously focusing on my race, on my tyres, I was trying to really keep them because I had already the first lap fighting with Carlos with the new tyres and that's not really what I wanted, so then I had to take care of my tyres and that was it," said Leclerc.