Charles Leclerc was left satisfied with his day’s work after crossing the line fifth at Imola on Sunday.
Though the Monegasque wasn’t able to repeat his strong qualifying pace from recent races, starting seventh, he made some progress early on and was among those to stay out under the late Safety Car.
That put Leclerc up to fourth for the run to the flag, and he was only deprived that position following a very bold move by Daniil Kvyat at Piratella on the first lap after the restart.
“I think we were actually quite competitive during the whole race,” he said.
“We were maybe a tiny bit quicker than Daniel [Ricciardo] on the hard compound at the beginning but not by much, so not enough to overtake for sure.
“Then at the restart, I struggled a bit more compared to Daniel who did a great job.”
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Asked if he thought the decision to stay out was correct, despite the benefit he got, Leclerc wasn’t so sure.
“It’s always tricky to know whether it was the right move or not, but at the end yeah, we have P5,” he added.
And that result could prove critical in Leclerc’s fight for fourth the Drivers’ Championship as he sits 10 points behind Ricciardo and just three ahead of Sergio Perez, who he was able to keep at bay in the final laps.
“Exactly, which was the most important thing as he is the one closest to us in the Championship,” he noted.
“Overall I’m satisfied with the race, the only thing I’m not so sure on, we’ll have to analyse a bit better is whether we could have gone on the medium [tyres] and probably stop a little bit later on the softs, but at the end, I’m pretty happy with the race.”