“Not a big talking point” – Charles Leclerc downplays failed Lewis Hamilton swap

Charles Leclerc has dismissed the significance of Lewis Hamilton not giving the place back on the final lap at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

It was another tough race for Ferrari in Baku as they saw their cars finish eighth and ninth.

Ferrari split their cars in terms of strategy.

Leclerc started the race on the mediums, stopping relatively early, while Hamilton went long on the hard tyre.

Leclerc spent most of his race stuck behind Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson, and with Hamilton closing fast on fresh rubber, he relinquished the position to his teammate on track.

Hamilton attempted to give back the place to his teammate on the run to the start-finish line but failed to do so.

Giving his perspective on it, Leclerc said: “For a P8 or a P9 it’s not going to be a big talking point.

“I don’t really mind. Obviously, these are things that we agree on between us and the general rules of how we want to work whenever there’s a swap.

“It didn’t happen and that’s OK. It’s not like I would have been a lot happier being P8 so I don’t mind.”

Leclerc takes responsibility for poor weekend

Up until qualifying, Ferrari looked as if they would be in the fight for pole – and potentially the win.

However, things quickly went downhill after Hamilton was knocked out in Q2.

Leclerc crashed in the early stages of Q3, leaving him ninth on the grid.

Leclerc conceded that his qualifying mistake effectively ruined his chances in the race.

“It’s the way it is. I’ve got to take responsibility for qualifying,” Leclerc added.

“It didn’t go our way yesterday because I made a mistake in Q3. These weekends happen. It’s been a very strong season so far but this weekend I haven’t been doing a great job. In qualifying, I paid the price of the mistake in Q3 and in those conditions where it’s tricky, that’s where I should be in front and taking that as an opportunity.

“I didn’t do that this weekend. Today we paid the price for that because I was stuck in traffic and it was a little bit of rolling the dice on which strategy would be best. You would only hope you were on the same strategy with the guys that were faster.

“I unfortunately was on the same strategy as cars that were maybe struggling a bit more. Liam was doing a really good job defending – he had a really good straight-line speed. It was just impossible to overtake even if we had more pace. That means it’s not been a great Sunday for us.”