Although Charles Leclerc wasn’t impressed with the “f**king joke” of having to give a position back to Alex Albon at Imola, Fred Vasseur says Ferrari gave the order as they had a “bad feeling” the stewards would penalise him.

Leclerc was all over the place in Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as the Ferrari went from starting 11th, to being in podium contention as he undercut those ahead, to falling to the back of the top 10, and then returning to fourth place.

Charles Leclerc: This is a f**king joke!

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

It was largely dictated by the timing of the Virtual Safety Car for Esteban Ocon’s stricken Haas and then the full Safety Car when Kimi Antonelli parked his Mercedes on the side of the track.

The latter event saw Leclerc line up fourth for the restart, but on old tyres as Ferrari informed the Monegasque driver that he only had softs, Pirelli’s new super soft C6 range, available.

He tried to argue that it would be better than restarting on old hard tyres, but his race engineer Bryan Bozzi shot that down as the soft tyres would not have gone the distance with 10, potentially more, laps still to go.

However, when Bozzi did then give him the go-ahead to pit, Hamilton pulled in and Leclerc didn’t, declaring he was “not going to wait behind him and lose more positions”.

Leclerc found himself desperately defending against Albon, the Williams driver all over his rear wing, which brought Lewis Hamilton into the fight in sixth place.

Albon tried to pass around the outside of Tamburello, the favoured overtaking spot in Sunday’s race, but Leclerc closed the gap and he instead went through the gravel and fell to sixth behind both Ferraris.

Hamilton, on fresher tyres, overtook Leclerc for fourth with Leclerc then informed he was under investigation by the stewards and needed to give the position to Albon. He did that, but wasn’t impressed.

Leclerc: “That’s how racing is now? What did I do wrong? This is a f**king joke!”

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After crossing the line in sixth, it was clear Leclerc still wasn’t happy with the situation nor did Ferrari know whether or not the driver would still be penalised as the stewards continued to investigated.

Leclerc: “So now explain to me why the penalty or whatever it is.”

Bozzi: “We’ll know at the end. Right now we don’t know. We are under investigation.”

Leclerc: “What do you mean? You told me to let him through.”

Bozzi: “Yes, because we’re being investigated. I told you what I was told.”

The stewards cleared Leclerc, ruling no further action was required.

Bozzi: “No further action. We stay in sixth place.”

Leclerc: “Okay.”

Bozzi: “Thanks anyway, it was a good race. We were unlucky with the first Virtual Safety Car.”

Speaking to the media, including PlanetF1.com, after the race, Leclerc maintained he’d done nothing wrong in his battle against Albon.

“With Alex, it was very much on the limit for sure,” he said. “I thought that in the way the rules are written, I was right on the limit of those rules.

“I’ve got to check the images again, but I don’t regret anything I’ve done. I mean, today was all about giving it all.”

Vasseur, however, later revealed that Ferrari believed the driver would be penalised and that’s why they told him to give the position back.

“We had a bad feeling about the investigation involving Charles, so we preferred to give the position back to Albon,” he explained.

As for the pit wall’s decision not to put Leclerc on a set of soft tyres for the Safety Car restart, the Frenchman stood by that decision as he insists the C6 tyres would not have gone the distance.

“Putting on the soft tyres at the end was a risk,” he said. “Three laps would have been too much, and even eight was already close to the limit.

“In the end, the call was the right one.

“Obviously, we always want more, but the Safety Cars didn’t go in Charles’ favour. We always have to try to extract the maximum from the car, and I think we did that.”

Hamilton and Leclerc scored 20 points for Ferrari at Imola, however, the Scuderia remain P4 in the Drivers’ standings where they trail championship leaders McLaren by 165 points.

Leclerc is fifth in the Drivers’ standings on 61 points, with Hamilton P6 on 53.

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