Charles Leclerc and Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto differed on whether the undercut performed on Sebastian Vettel in Sochi was intended.
Having abided by a pre-race agreement to tow his teammate down to Turn 2, giving up the lead as a result, there was dissension in the ranks as the German then refused to allow Leclerc back through.
Admittedly, his argument was a strong one with the presence of Lewis Hamilton not far behind on different tyres.
However, the matter was seemingly resolved when the Monegasque pitted first and was able to move ahead with a number of fast laps before Vettel then pitted.
“I think everything has been respected in a way because I gave the slipstream then had to do the swap back, which we did at the pitstop, and that’s it,” Leclerc told Sky Sports.
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Later though Binotto explained it was simply a matter of necessity which led to Leclerc’s early stop.
“The undercut was not for the reason for giving back the position to Charles. Charles stopped because he had worn tyres, so it was the right moment for him to pit,” he said.
“We knew as well that if we had stopped both our cars there, we would have been vulnerable on Safety Cars by giving the lead to Hamilton, so we tried to stay out as much as we could with Seb, simply to protect in case of Safety Cars later in the race.”
Ultimately though Vettel couldn’t hang on eventually stopping and then triggered the VSC himself by suffering an MGU-K issue on his out-lap.
“Again, Seb, his tyres were worn, it was the right moment to pit,” the Ferrari boss continued.
“As a matter of fact, Charles was ahead, Seb was behind, but the race was still not over and there would have been plenty of opportunity to decide with them what would have been the best option later on.”
After Vettel retired, giving the lead to Hamilton, Leclerc switched back onto the soft tyre in an effort to re-pass both Mercedes’ in the final 20 laps.
“They were very quick and they’ve been very quick since the start of the year in the race pace and we need to understand why there’s so much difference between the quali and the race pace,” the 22-year-old said.
“But whether it will have been enough to challenge, I don’t know, because I could not overtake Valtteri and Lewis was quicker than Valtteri.”