When Charles Leclerc dropped all the way down to 19th after just two laps of the Austrian Grand Prix, he faced an uphill battle to keep his impressive points streak going. But the highly-rated Sauber driver bounced back with another strong drive to come home ninth, securing his fifth top-ten finish in the last six races…

This weekend, the second part of Formula 1's first-ever triple header, has been one in which Leclerc has had to show his character. He was handed a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, dropping him down to 17th for the race start, but he immediately displayed his attacking prowess to climb up three places.

That early work, however, was undone when he took a trip through the gravel on Lap 2, pushing him back down the field. While benefitting from the retirements of several cars ahead, he then battled hard to secure another top-ten finish in his rookie F1 season.

“I did a mistake in the early laps which cost us - and that was a little bit of a shame,” said Leclerc. “After advancing quite a bit at the start, I fell back after a few laps and had a tough job ahead of me to recover enough positions to score some points.

“But after that, I think it’s the best race of this year. It was an exciting day. There was a lot of action during the race, and some good overtakes, so I really enjoyed driving today.