Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto is confident the team used the right strategy with Charles Leclerc during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Monegasque would start on the medium tyre in P8 after his crash in qualifying and would cruise through the field in the opening laps, eventually taking the lead after the rest had stopped.

As the Mercedes' and Sebastian Vettel closed back in before passing Leclerc again, however, fears over the durability of the soft compound meant the Scuderia waited until 16 laps to go before stopping Charles.

A move which left the 21-year-old wanting to see the data and understand the reasons for the call.

“It was something we already discussed together in the post-race debrief,” Binotto was quoted by Crash.net.

“Certainly, maybe yes, we could have done a different gamble, maybe stopping earlier on our tyre or trying really to last very long on the medium.

"You may always discuss different solutions at the end of the race looking back, but I think that overall what we did was nothing wrong.”

The most surprising aspect of Leclerc's race was the lack of a late charge having put on the soft compound, instead opting to pit again late on for a successful fastest lap bid.

“I think a lot of people thought we were struggling, which I don’t think we were,” Leclerc explained. “I just didn’t push to try and close the gap."

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But having appeared the quickest man for the majority of the weekend, the Ferrari youngster admits the final result was frustrating.

“The fifth place, obviously when I’m looking at practice and quali, even though obviously practice is not very representative, I am disappointed because I felt great in the car," he said.

“I completely agree with Mattia - in the car there was definitely the potential to do pole position and I threw all our chances away by touching the wall yesterday it is my mistake, I take the responsibility, and today basically it was the best we could do from there.

“There are some positives to take away from the weekend. I think quali pace was definitely stronger than China and race pace was also very close to Mercedes," Leclerc added.

“Now we look forward, and I’m pretty sure we will come back even stronger in Barcelona.”