Leclerc insists Ferrari are ‘still targeting the title’ after superb Austin triumph

Charles Leclerc was left thrilled by his superb victory in the United States Grand Prix, with the Monegasque stating that Ferrari are “targeting the title” after the squad took a dominant one-two at the Circuit of The Americas.

While Leclerc had lined up in P4 on the grid – one position behind team mate Carlos Sainz – the 27-year-old enjoyed an impressive start, having benefitted from pole-sitter Lando Norris going wide in his scrap with Max Verstappen up ahead to surge through into P1 on the opening lap.

READ MORE: Leclerc leads dominant Ferrari one-two in Austin as Norris loses third to Verstappen after penalty

It then proved to be a smooth drive to the chequered flag for Leclerc as he took his third win of the season and eighth of his F1 career so far, a dream result following some ups and downs during the weekend in Austin.

“[I’m] very happy,” Leclerc said after jumping out of the car. “It hasn’t been an easy weekend, until now I have been struggling a bit with the feeling with the car, but I had the confidence that in the race the feeling was better and it was the case.

“We’ve seen it yesterday in the Sprint race, we were a bit… not scared, but we thought the others would improve a lot more today but we still had the upper hand, so [I’m] really happy with today. A one-two for the team, we couldn’t have dreamed for better.”

Asked to describe what happened into the first corner when he took the lead, Leclerc responded: “Well it was a pretty good Turn 1! That’s exactly what I wanted to do. We had a really good lunge. I knew that it was going to be very tight into Turn 1.

“Yesterday I was a little bit the victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Today I gained from it and that obviously helped quite a lot our first stint because we had a mega pace, and then in the second stint it was all about managing behind. We did a great job.

HIGHLIGHTS: Leclerc takes United States GP win as Ferrari seal glorious one-two finish ahead of Verstappen

“The pace of the car today and this weekend overall was really, really good in the race, and that’s mostly thanks to the engineers. They’ve been working like crazy in the last few months to bring the upgrades that we’ve had in Singapore and in the last few races, and it seems to be paying off.

“The whole team is working super well. Pit stops were really good, everything worked out well so [I’m] really, really happy.”

After being told that the one-two marked Ferrari’s first in the United States for 18 years, it was put to Leclerc that he must be feeling proud of the whole team – leading him to reassert their championship ambitions ahead of the final five races of the season.

“Yeah, very, very happy,” he answered. “Now we are still targeting the title – it’s a long way to go but it’s a good start to this triple header.”

DRIVER OF THE DAY: Leclerc gets your vote as he takes spectacular Austin victory

The result has certainly given Ferrari a significant boost in the constructors’ battle, with their new total of 496 meaning that they trail second-placed Red Bull by only eight points, while McLaren remain in the lead on 544.

In the drivers’ standings, Leclerc remains in third place but is now just 22 points adrift of Norris in second. Verstappen, meanwhile, has stretched his lead over Norris to 57 points.