Leclerc was forced to "manage quite a few issues that we had on our side" at the Red Bull Ring

Despite his faultless performance in qualifying and the 70-lap Spielberg race, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc noted that he had to "manage quite a few issues that we had on our side."

Following a strong qualifying performance, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton started from second and fourth on the grid at today’s Austrian Grand Prix.

The start of the race was aborted and delayed by 15 minutes, after Carlos Sainz was unable to leave the grid on the formation lap. The opening lap saw Kimi Antonelli crash into the back of Max Verstappen's Red Bull which forced the race direction to deploy the the Safety Car.

Leclerc and Hamilton both started on medium tyres and went for a two-stop strategy, switching first to Hard and then back to Medium for the final stint.

Having lost second place to Oscar Piastri after the start, Leclerc delivered a measured performance to grab a podium finish after his third place at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Hamilton also had a relatively straightforward race, never really able to challenge his team-mate, but he was able to escape from Mercedes driver George Russell after their intense battle on the opening lap.

Having grabbed a third and fourth place finish at the Red Bull Ring, the Scuderia picked up 27 points and is now back in 2nd place in the Constructors’ championship.

Asked what the key moments for his latest podium finish has been, Leclerc noted revealed a list of factors that contributed his third place at the Red Bull Ring.

"There weren't very many key moments on my side. Obviously, the start, I wish I had done a bit of a better job to be completely alongside Lando.

"Maybe that would have changed a little bit for three or four laps. I don't think we had the pace to stay there in front. Basically, from Turn 1 one to the end, it was a very boring race. I was on my own, just trying to manage quite a few issues that we had on our side.

"Let's not call them issues, but we've got to do some management in the situation we're in at the moment. I won't go into the detail, but the lift and coast was a little bit frustrating.

"We paid a bit of the price for it on the first stint, but then the second and last stint were a bit more positive, which was good. But there weren't many key moments apart from the start.

Asked about Ferrari's recent upgrades, Leclerc revealed: "They are definitely a step forward. Yes. And I think it helped us to be on the podium today. The team has done an incredible job at pushing to try and get them as early as possible.

"I know that they are still pushing extremely hard to have other upgrades as soon as possible, which I hope will make another difference and will help us to be a bit closer to McLaren, to Red Bull in their good days, or to Mercedes even in their good days. So, yeah, we are pushing hard, and I hope that we see the result as soon as possible."

Pressed on to reveal his assessment regarding McLaren's current dominant form and performance advantage, Leclerc said that while Ferrari made a step forward with their upgrades, the Woking-based outfit's advantage is not that "you would want to see."

"Surprise is probably not the right word. The first stint was poor on our side, but the second and last stint I thought were reasonable, but I've got to look. I mean, I was obviously focused on my race, and I didn't see all the lap times.

"I saw the gap at the end of the race, and it's not the gap that you would want to see, but that's unfortunately the gap that we've had, if not more, since the beginning of the season.

"For us, we are working a little bit in relative to the others. And for now, this weekend, it's a step forward, and I hope that we can do another one as soon as possible.