Charles Leclerc says Ferrari win at Monza as good as the first

MONZA, Italy – Charles Leclerc never thought he would match the raw emotions of his first Ferrari win at the Italian Grand Prix, until he did it again on Sunday.

Leclerc and Ferrari pulled off a masterfully executed race to beat the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris at the team’s home race.

It was Ferrari’s first home win since Leclerc’s victory in 2019.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” Leclerc said immediately after the race. “Actually, I thought that the first time would just feel like this, and then the second time, if there was a second time, wouldn’t feel as special.

“But, my God, the emotions in the last few laps, exactly the same, like in 2019, just watching the grandstand inside of the track. which is tricky but yeah, incredible! I mean Monaco and Monza are the two races that I want to win every year.

“Obviously I want to win as many races as possible and the world championship as soon as possible but these are the two most important races of the season and I managed to win them this year. So, it’s so, so special.”

Leclerc’s win was built on the back of a one-stop strategy, while McLaren went for two stops.

That meant nursing his second set of tyres to the end.

In the closing laps, as Piastri and Norris chased him down, the crowd cheered louder and louder every time Leclerc drove down the start-finish straight.

Leclerc admitted it had been tough to keep focused.

“Just like in 2019, the last three, four, five laps it was quite difficult to keep the eyes on the track and I was obviously looking a little bit in the grandstand, I could see everybody was standing up and that was really nice to see. In 2019 I remember there was my mum also in the grandstand because I didn’t manage to have a paddock pass for her.

“This year, she actually had a paddock pass, so it’s good. She could watch and experience both things, once in the grandstand and once in the paddock. But yeah, it’s a very special feeling. I could also see some red smoke at one point. So I knew everybody was super excited, but I also knew that I had to finish the job and that I had to stay on it because Oscar had a really good pace.

“But yeah, in the last five, six laps, I felt like we had it. The tyres felt good and I could see that Oscar was not that fast to catch me before the end of the race if I was not doing any mistakes.”