Charles Leclerc recovered from a difficult weekend to finish fourth at the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, as teammate Lewis Hamilton claimed second place to give Scuderia Ferrari HP their fourth podium in five races.
Hamilton’s result at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve — Ferrari’s 840th podium — came after a determined late-race charge past Max Verstappen, while Leclerc’s points finish represented a solid salvage job following a weekend in which he struggled to find confidence in the SF-26.
A tale of two Ferraris
The contrast between the two drivers could hardly have been sharper. Hamilton, who qualified fifth, produced one of his strongest performances of the season — running third in the opening laps after an excellent start that carried him past Oscar Piastri, before eventually hunting down and passing Verstappen with five laps to go.
Leclerc, starting eighth after a qualifying session he described as a struggle with tyre warm-up, made an early gain past Isack Hadjar off the line. Both Ferrari drivers switched from used Soft tyres to Mediums during a Virtual Safety Car window on lap 31, and while Hamilton maintained his position, Leclerc temporarily lost fourth to Hadjar before reclaiming it with a clean, decisive overtake on lap 40. He finished the race 34 seconds behind his teammate.
Ferrari’s 37-point weekend haul — seven from Saturday’s sprint, 30 from Sunday’s race — extended the team’s advantage over McLaren in the constructors’ championship.
Leclerc eyes Monaco redemption
Leclerc was candid in his assessment of the weekend, admitting he needed to understand where Hamilton had found the performance he could not. “It has been a difficult weekend for me, starting from FP,” he said. “I just didn’t get the right feeling in the car and struggled to put the tyres in the right window. Lewis on the other hand had a great weekend in the same car, so I have to look into his data and understand what he did differently to make it work.”
With Monaco next on the calendar, the Monegasque driver will be hoping conditions in the Principality offer a more natural fit. “Next up is my home race in Monaco,” he added. “I look forward to racing there, and I hope that our car will give us an advantage on that track.”
Hamilton was equally positive after what he described as a deeply satisfying result. “I felt at one with the car from the first laps in practice,” he said. “The fight with Max was intense and enjoyable, that’s why we race.”
The Monaco Grand Prix takes place from 5th to 7th June.
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Photo source: Scuderia Ferrari Media Centre