Charles Leclerc says his second victory at the Italian Grand Prix is as special as his first after pulling off a one-stop strategy to win for Ferrari at Monza.
Oscar Piastri led the majority of the race from teammate Lando Norris, with Leclerc dropping from second to third after the first round of pit stops. While McLaren opted for a two-stop strategy, Leclerc stayed on a set of hard compound tires for 38 laps to hold off Piastri by 2.6s, with the home crowd cheering with increasing volume every l ap the Ferrari driver passed by and closed in on victory.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” Leclerc said. “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 incredible!
“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. It’s so, so special.”
Leclerc admits he wasn’t expecting to be in the mix for victory at Monza given the performance seen earlier in the weekend, and was unsure about the one-stop strategy until he had clear air. Guaranteed to emerge in third place if he made a second stop, the Monegasque felt it was a gamble worth taking.
“Before the race, if you would have asked me, the one-stop was definitely the thing I wanted to do,” he said. “After 10 laps, I think we saw that Red Bull started to struggle with the front left on the hard, and then we started to doubt the one-stop. We thought that it would be a lot more difficult because we thought that the hard would be a more difficult tire to bring to the end.