Ferrari 'didn’t leave anything on the table," claims Leclerc after a fautless drive at Monza

Despite an aggressive opening lap and a faultless drive at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was unable to finish in the top three, but the Monegasque stressed that the Scuderia "didn’t leave anything on the table."

Ferrari did not have the pace for compete for the podium this weekend in front of their passionate Tifosi, but both the trackside team and their drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc extracted the absolute maximum of their SF-25.

The Monegasque was aggressive and brilliant on the opening lap, overtaking championship leader Oscar Piastri to move himself up into P3. However, the SF25 did not have the race pace that would have been enough to compete with the McLarens and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, and Piastri managed to pick off the Monegasque to regain third spot.

Leclerc was then challenged by the Mercedes of George Russell, but he had a better tyre management and he was therefore able to escape from the Briton, ending up fourth at Ferrari’s home race.

His team-mate Lewis Hamilton started from P10 as a result of his five-place grid penalty. The seven-time world champion had a sensational start to pick off Yuki Tsunoda and Andrea Kimi Antonelli on the opening lap.

The Briton did not wait for long before he slipped past Fernando Alonso and Gabriel Bortoleto. He then went on to hunt down his old team-mate George Russell, but he could not find a way past the Mercedes man, and had to be content with sixth.

“It’s not been an easy day,” said Leclerc after the race. “In the first few laps I tried to fight with Piastri – unfortunately very quickly I overheated all my tyres, and I paid the price for the 10 laps after.

“Then I recovered and then the pace came back to me, but it was very difficult to manage that and to try and gain a position, especially when you don’t have the same pace as the guys in front, so I couldn’t do much more.”

The Monegasque took a sensational victory last time out at Monza in front of Ferrari's passionate Tifosi, but - despite the slightly disappointing result this year - he stressed that the Scuderia "didn’t leave anything on the table."

"I gave it my all. I tried to hold on to P3 after overtaking at the start, but I lost grip with my tyres overheating and struggled to keep Oscar behind.

"In the end, we just didn’t find the pace to fight for the win today, but at the same time, we maximised our result and didn’t leave anything on the table.

"Monza is always a special race for us. The incredible amount of support from our tifosi means so much to us and we’ll give everything to be back on the top step of the podium next year and make them proud," Leclerc concluded.