Charles Leclerc has hailed his drive to second🧸 place at the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix as one of the best drives of ﷽his Formula 1 career.

Leclerc qualified a mediocre seventh but made the most of a chaotic season-opener to finish ruꦓnner-up at the Red Bull Rཧing for the second season running.

The Monegasque pulled off some ballsy moves on Lando Norris and Sergio Perez in the closing laps, before being promoted✅ to second place from third due to Lewis Hamilton picking up a five-second time penalty for his collision with Alexander Al꧙bon.  

“Well I am extremely happy to be honest, it feels like a victory today,'' Leclerc said. “We have been struggling since the beginning of the week🌊end. I would rate this one as one of my best races since I arrived in Formula 1 because I didn’t make many mistakes.

“I am extremely happy with the performance, a💫lso with the strategy, with our choices.''

Ferrari is hoping to rect𒁃ify its lack of pace in Austria with a major upgrade which is due to arrive at the Hungarian Grand Prix in two weeks' time.

Its main defic🍒iency seems to be on the straights - a stark contrast to last season - and Leclerc is hopeful the upgrade in Hungary can help remedy the SF1000's current issues.

“We are qui✤ck around the corners but we struggle [on the straights]. We will have a new package in Hungary to try to fix thisꦦ issue.

“It has been a very difficult race today. Struggling to overtake and every time somebody was making a mistake then I was being very aggressi🍬ve to try and take that opportunity, which we did so I am very happy to be P2.''