Level-headed Charles Leclerc claimed his second grand prix win of the season on Sunday but insisted it was too early to talk about winning the drivers’ championship as the circuit prepares to move to Ferrari home territory in two weeks’ time.
The 24-year-old dominated the Australian Grand Prix from start to finish to take the chequered flag ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez by more than 20 seconds.
World champion Max Verstappen failed to finish but Leclerc had been outpacing the Dutchman before his retirement.
Leclerc has two wins and a second from the opening three races. The Monegasque is 34 points ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell in the standings and 46 ahead of Red Bull’s Verstappen. Ferrari lead the constructors standings by 39 points from Mercedes.
But Leclerc is not getting carried away, playing down the Ferrari fever gripping fans ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola on April 24.
“I can imagine (the excitement in Italy) but I don’t want to think too much about it. It’s very early in the season obviously,” Leclerc said after his fourth grand prix victory.
“It’s good to be in the championship lead – 34 points is always good to take wherever you are in the calendar, but I don’t want to focus too much on the championship now.
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton hailed his fourth-place finish behind teammate George Russell at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday as a “great result” that will give Mercedes a shot in the arm.
Both drivers have had a torrid time so far this season as the once-dominant German manufacturer struggled with porpoising, or bouncing at high speed.
The problem has not been fixed and the team remains well off the pace of Ferrari and Red Bull, but they are slowly improving.
“It’s a great result for us as a team, honestly,” said seven-time world champion Hamilton.
“[We] have had so many difficult moments with the car and to get fifth and sixth in qualifying, to have progressed like we have, with the reliability we have, is amazing.
A frustrated world champion Verstappen said it was “unacceptable” that he was not able to finish the Australian Grand Prix after his Red Bull broke down when he looked destined for second.
It was the second time in the opening three races of the season that the Dutchman had failed to go the distance, after also retiring in Bahrain.
“We are so far behind [Ferrari]. We need to finish races,” Verstappen said after pulling over on lap 39 of 58 at Albert Park when running second to winner Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.
“I smell some weird fluid” Verstappen reported over team radio before stopping the car, jumping out and grabbing a fire extinguisher to help marshals to put out flames.
“Today was a bad day, I was managing the tyres, I could not fight Charles,” he added.
