‘Today is the result of my mistakes’ – Leclerc reflects on ‘difficult’ P5 in Canadian GP

Charles Leclerc was left with mixed feelings after Ferrari demonstrated flashes of strong pace in the Canadian Grand Prix that did not translate to a top-three finish, leaving him to rue his disappointing Qualifying result.

The Monegasque’s weekend got off to a frustrating start with a big crash in the first practice session, which damaged his chassis and prevented him from partaking in FP2, subsequently putting him on the back foot for the critical Qualifying hour.

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While Ferrari were able to fully repair his car, a mistake in Q3 angered him further as he was forced to settle for eighth position on the grid, with his team mate Lewis Hamilton ahead in P5.

Starting on hard tyres while most of the top 10 were on mediums, Leclerc progressed through the race and led it at times when the other frontrunners pitted, but ultimately finished in fifth place at the chequered flag.

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“Honestly, I think today is kind of the result of my mistakes,” he later summarised. “FP1, Qualifying, the traffic… all in all I think that puts us a little bit in a difficult situation because we start further back on the grid.

“Then for strategy, there’s been a bit of talk on the radio. I was of the opinion that the one-stop could work, the team was more of the opinion that the two-stop was the right way. Eventually, the team is making the final call because they have more information than I do.

“I wanted to make it clear that this was not what I was thinking, but I understand. I will speak with the team and I’ll explain to them what I saw that made me think that this was the wrong choice. Overall, I don’t think that this has completely changed our race result. Eventually that’s where we deserved to finish.

“The pace was pretty strong. I think the starting position was just very difficult to deal with because then you’ve got to overtake and it makes everything difficult. I don’t think FP1 hurt our weekend that much.”

Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Scuderia Ferrari is interviewed during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve on June 14, 2025 in Montreal, Quebec. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images) — Hamilton crossed the line over seven seconds behind Leclerc

It was also a tricky weekend for Hamilton, who ended the race a position behind Leclerc in P6. Halfway through, a radio message from his engineer explained that the team thought his pace was good considering damage he had suffered, which was later revealed to be the consequence of the Briton hitting a groundhog on track.

Asked to talk about the damage, he said: “It was bad. The whole front of the floor was basically destroyed on the right side. To still get sixth with that damage, I’m really grateful so I’ll definitely take it.

“We almost had brake failure as well – the pedal went super long so I had to manage these brakes for a period of time, and then they came back towards the end. Given those issues, I’m grateful for the points.

“We have problems with our brakes quite often. Honestly, I’ve never had these brake issues until this year. I guess they just got hot or something like that. The pedal went super long and I was hitting the brake and it wasn’t stopping, then I had to do a bunch of lift and coast to cool it down.”