Leclerc blames "extreme setups" for his disappointing race at Silverstone

Having ended the British Grand Prix outside the top ten, the eight-time grand prix winner Charles Leclerc was left to rue "extreme setups" for his disappointing afternoon at Silverstone.

Having displayed an eye-catching performance across the practice sessions and qualifying, Ferrari endured an utterly disappointing afternoon at the British Grand Prix.

Charles Leclerc was meant to start from P6 on the grid, but he elected to pit for slicks. However, his decision turned out to be the wrong one as the last segment of the Silverstone track was still damp.

On lap 11, the rain intensified so Hamilton pitted for a second set of Intermediates and Leclerc swapped back from Mediums to Inters as the Safety Car came out.

Conditions were extreme, with standing water and poor visibility. Cars were sliding around, struggling to stay on track. However, the track began to dry out quite rapidly, but it was still too early for slicks, with those who made an early change having off-track excursions.

Although Hamilton complained about the drivability of his car, the seven-time F1 champion looked very strong in the second half of the race.
The Briton completed several brilliant overtaking manoeuvres, passing George Russell, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll. However, he ran out of time to catch third placed Nico Hülkenberg.

As the race progressed, Leclerc came back into the points-scoring zone, albeit he made a mistake in the closing stages of the race, going off the track at Stowe, and finished down in P14 on a weekend when he could have fought for the victory given his race pace showed on Friday.

"It was a really tough race from start to finish. In retrospect, my decision to stop on the formation lap for slicks was not the right one, but I don’t think it changed much because our pace just wasn’t there today.

"I went quite extreme with the set-up on my car for the last few races, and it paid off in the dry. However, in the conditions we saw here today, it didn’t seem to work as well. There is a lot of work ahead of us.

"Congratulations to Nico for his podium, it's a great achievement for him and his team," concluded the Monegsque driver.