It was a fairly uneventful race for Leclerc at the Circuit o𒊎f the Americas as he finished over 20 seconds ahead of Daniel Ricciard🐷o in fifth.

Reflecting on the race at ꦛthe Circuit of the Americas, Leclerc praised the handling of the Ferrari as it meant he could ‘leave nothing on the table’.

“Well it was a very very good ꦛrace, the pace was there, every laps were quali laps and I honestly didn’t leave much on the table today,” Leclerc said. “It’s a very very g༺ood day, and everything felt very good, and it also shows we are working in that right direction, that as a team we are doing improvements races after races and that’s great to see.

“How high do I rate this race? I don’t know, every race is different, but it was definitely a great dri🐽ve and a great car to drive too.”

As Perez struggled with his physical condition due to illness and his drinks bottle failing, Leclerc started to reduce the g🦩ap in pursuit of the final spot on the podium.

With the Red Bull driver in sight, Leclerc thought his first podium finish since Silverstone was possible🍰.

“Every lap I was trying to maximise everything, it was very smooth, we were never under threat of anybody,” Leclerc 💝added. “The last stint was probably the most challenging one but mostly physical, was very difficult physically, the heat was quite hard an꧒d also the bumps are quite difficult laps after laps to go on them.

“So it was physically very demanding and I could see Checo like eight seconds in front and we were catching him, at one point I thought the poꩲdium was possible so I was really giving everything so yeah the last stint was the most difficult one but we didn’t have any particular issue.”