Ferrari's Charles Leclerc believes he put in 110% effort to edge out Red Bull's Sergio Perez in the fight for P2 in the World Drivers' Championship standings this season.
The Monegasque came into the final race weekend of the year tied on points with Perez and started from P3 at the Yas Marina Circuit, one place behind the Mexican.
Charles Leclerc was able to deploy a one-stop strategy to climb to P2 in the classification and hold onto that position, despite Perez's best efforts to catch him in a nail-biting race.
The battle came down to the last lap of the race, but Leclerc did just enough to keep Perez at bay and take P2 in the standings by a margin of three points.
Following the race, Charles Leclerc shared his thoughts on a grueling race with Jenson Button on the start-finish straight. He said:
"I was 110% from the first lap to the last lap. Honestly, we had the perfect race for us. There was not much more today. I knew that the only possibility for us to beat Checo [Sergio Perez] was with a different strategy and playing with tyre management, which we did really well today and we managed to make the one-stop work. So, really really happy."
Charles Leclerc encouraged by Ferrari's improvements in second half of 2022
Charles Leclerc is happy with Ferrari's improvement in the second half of the 2022 season and hopes they can use this as a stepping stone for next season.
After being congratulated by Jenson Button for securing his best-ever finish in the World Drivers' Championship standings, the 25-year-old said:
"I really hope next year we can do a step forward in order to fight for the championship. But, considering where we were last year, it's a really big step forward. I think we improved towards the end of the season in terms of strategy. We still need to work in terms of race pace, because coming into this Sunday, we seemed to struggle a bit more. But, we will push during the winter break in order to catch them back a little bit."
Ferrari close out 2022 with P2 in the World Constructors' Championship standings as well, beating out Mercedes with relative ease in the end.
