The Japanese Grand Prix was effectively won in qualifying after the top 10 places remained unchanged apart from one switch between Lewis Hamilton and Isack Hadjar.
The Ferrari driver overtook Hadjar in the opening stages of the race to claim P7, while the rest of the field remained virtually where they started.
Ferrari had a fairly mute race coming off the back of their double disqualification in China, after both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were thrown out for seperate technical infringements.
Leclerc had qualified the race in P4 and maintained position from both Mercedes drivers, despite George Russell being the first of the leaders to pit.
Discussing his race on the BBC Chequered Flag podcast, Harry Benjamin thinks the Monogasque will be pleased with the outcome of the race.
Harry Benjamin thinks Charles Leclerc will be ‘really pleased’ with Japanese Grand Prix
Leclerc had a fairly quiet race in P4 having finished 13.9 seconds off the leaders. Ferrari is reportedly dealing with an issue on their car, which is preventing them from reaching the performance they expected.
Despite the problems, Leclerc finished the Japanese GP 1.2 seconds ahead of Russell having ran a flawless one-stop strategy.
“One man who I think we seen about three or four times in that race was Charles Leclerc,” said Benjamin.
“Quiet race and took fourth and I actually think he’ll be really pleased about that because they haven’t really been anywhere this weekend. Russell has looked the quicker car and they had to settle for fifth. Leclerc a good result.”
Charles Leclerc happy with progress in ‘lonely’ Japanese Grand Prix
Discussing his race on F1 TV, Leclerc said that he had a fairly quiet afternoon while his teammate Hamilton did not progress beyond P7.
“It was a bit of a lonely race for me today. P4 is not a result we are ever satisfied with, but looking at the positives of this weekend, the work we did on Friday in terms of set-up adjustment and the learnings we take into the next races have paid off,” said Leclerc.
“We made good progress, but we have to keep our heads down and keep working before we come to any conclusions. The front runners still have quite an advantage in terms of pace.
“For now, we have to focus on maximizing the points we bring home, which we did today, and hopefully later in the season we can fight for the top positions.”
Leclerc sits sixth in the Drivers’ Championship after the race on 20 points, while Hamilton is a further five points back.
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