Charles Leclerc was unaware he was at risk of losing his lead to Sebastian Vettel because Ferrari did not tell him his team mate had pitted.

A disappointed Leclerc revealed he had been unaware of his team mate’s strategy, which allowed Vettel to run on fresh tyres a lap earlier than his team mate and helped him to take the lead.

“You don’t see the full situation as a driver,” said Leclerc. “You only see your situation so it’s very difficult to know who has pitted behind.

“I was not aware Seb has pitted,” he confirmed. “Obviously for me I couldn’t have asked anything more than I did. I obviously did not expect Seb to pass me and it was frustrating from the car.”

Vettel received his instruction to pit at turn 20 on lap 18, shortly before the pit lane entrance. Leclerc, who had been controlling the pace at the front of the field in line with the team’s strategy, was not told that Vettel had pitted or that he needed to increase his pace. He covered the middle sector in 42.7 seconds while Vettel, on his out lap, was over 1.7 seconds faster.

Ferrari advised Leclerc to prepare for a pit stop once he was more than halfway around the lap, telling him “mode box”. But this left him unclear whether the team was preparing to pit him, and he asked for confirmation as he approached the pit entrance.

Afterwards Leclerc admitted he was frustrated by the situation but added “I also completely understand if that this decision had been taken it’s for sure for the good of the team.

“But it’s hard to understand in the car. It’s frustrating. I’ve had a good qualifying yesterday, I’ve done everything, I stick to the plan at the beginning of the race.

“We had to slow down as much as we could for the pit window to not open for the others and then started to push. I did not expect the undercut. But it’s life, sometimes it goes that way. I’m happy for the team anyway.”

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Team radio transcript: Leclerc and Vettel’s messages from the pit stops

Lap Exchange Message 19 To Leclerc: Pit stop gap 18 seconds. 19 Vettel: Go down three clicks. 19 To Vettel: Copy that. 19 To Vettel: Charles lap time 9.0 19 To Leclerc: Hamilton behind at 1.2. Hamilton with DRS. 19 To Vettel: Turn 20

Box Sebastian, box now. 19 To Leclerc: Vettel pits

And Hamilton with DRS. K1 plus available if you need it. 20 To Leclerc: Hamilton with DRS. 20 To Vettel: In pits

Mode box, mode box. 20 To Vettel: On the white line, racing Hulkenberg. 20 To Vettel: Push on the out lap. You are in free air. 20 To Leclerc: Turn 13

And mode box. Hamilton with DRS. 20 To Vettel: You are racing Hamilton, and push. 20 Leclerc: Box this lap or not? 20 To Leclerc: Box now, box. Box now, box. 20 To Leclerc: K2 on. 21 To Leclerc: And reset brake balance, reset diff. Will be close on Sebastian on exit. 21 To Vettel: SOC 2. 21 Vettel: We cleared him already did we? 21 To Vettel: Not yet. Push. Half a second. 21 To Leclerc: Leclerc rejoins the track behind Vettel.

And K2 off, K2 off. 21 To Vettel: SOC 2 and push. 21 To Leclerc: We need to push as much as you can. 21 Leclerc: Yeah but what the hell? I mean… 21 To Leclerc: We are tight with Hamilton. /tbody>

NB. Notes in italics are not messages

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2019 F1 season