"It's part of the game" - Charles Leclerc talks about the unfortunate yellow flag in the closing stages of 2022 F1 Saudi Arabian GP 

Charles Leclerc missed out on a second win in 2022, partially due to an unfortunate yellow flag in the closing stages of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. However, the Monegasque driver believes that such incidents are "part of the game."

The first two races of 2022 have confirmed that Red Bull and Ferrari are the teams to beat this season, with all four drivers showing tremendous pace across both race weekends. The Scuderia driver won the season opener in Bahrain by a comfortable margin, proving that he has what it takes to repeatedly rise to the top of the sport. However, the 24-year-old lost out to reigning world champion Max Verstappen in Jeddah, who won the race despite having started fourth on the grid.

A late yellow flag impeded Charles Leclerc, forcing him to ease off the throttle in his pursuit of Verstappen. Speaking about the incident and his battle with the Dutchman, Leclerc said:

"I definitely enjoyed the fight. It is obviously disappointing to lose the win of the race but it was a fun fight. It was very difficult because we had two cars that were in a very different place. I was very strong in the first sector, in all the corners, and basically much less strong in the straights. It was very, very tricky."

He continued:

"I tried to have the DRS in the last corner. It worked twice but didn't the last time. Then obviously, there was the yellow flag, the one where I could have at least had a chance to be alongside [Max Verstappen] was the one into turn 1, where I had no DRS. This was a little bit of a shame but it's part of the game."

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Charles Leclerc felt he could manage medium compound tires better than the hard compound tires

Most of the front-runners started the race on medium compound tires, with the intention of switching to the hard compound later in the race. With mediums being the softer compound, drivers expected it to be the easier of the two tire choices. However, Charles Leclerc claims he found it easier to manage the hard compound tires later on in the race.

Speaking to the media after the event, Leclerc said:

"The first run was a bit more difficult but I think we did a great job by managing those mediums because it wasn't easy following Checo [Sergio Perez], but towards the end we actually had quite a good pace on the mediums. And then on the hards it felt nice."

He added:

"Whenever I had a bit of margin I felt like I could keep the gap to Max, but then obviously with the safety cars, with the virtual safety cars, as soon as he got within DRS range, everything became a bit trickier."

Charles Leclerc leads the drivers' championship heading into the third race of the year. Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen are not too far behind the Monegasque driver, promising exciting action in the coming months.