Charles Leclerc conceded he simplyꦛ wasn’t fast enough to maintain third place at the Tuscan Grand Prix as he dropped down to eighth come the Formula 1 chequered flag.

Leclerc enjoyed a strong staꦜrt to Ferrari’s 1000th grand prix, moving ahead of Max Verstappen and Ale💛xander Albon on the opening lap for third place.

Once the initial Safety Car and red flag periods were over, Leclerc still maintained thi🦩rd but quickly dropped behind a numꦑber of Ferrari’s midfield rivals.

The M🌠onegasque driver eventually classifie🏅d in eighth place, benefitting from Kimi Raikkonen’s time penalty for cutting the pit lane entry.

Reflecting on his 🍬race, Leclerc admitt﷽ed the Ferrari car was “just slow” at Mugello.

“We were just slow,” Leclerc said. “There’s not much more to add. We didn’t have the pace🍬. I put myself in the best position possible, the two Mercs that were going away so I had 🅺free air, but just struggling so much with the car.

Leclerc says Ferrari needs to understand why it is so inconsist💃ent as it performed well in qu🗹alifying, but not in the race whereas in previous races it has been the complete opposite.

“We need to work honestly and try to understand because some races were are not very competitive in quali but are then are very competitive in the race which has been the case at th💜e beginning of the season, now we seem to have done a good job in quali but struggling massively with the car in the race, it is a difficult moment.”

Sebastian Vettel recovered to finish tenth having picked up damage on the opening lap of the𝓰 race.

Like Leclerc, he was confused by Ferrari’s lack of pace performa🐈nce.

“Obviously we were fighting hard and trying everything to get the points,” Vettel added. “Tight at the end with Kimi - we did everything we could. We weren’t quick enough. Why? Is always a good question and a difficult one to answer, there’s🐎 more than one reason.

“Obviously we know that our car is not quick enough but today we would have expected to have a 🃏better race pace so we need to have a look.”