Charles Leclerc conceded he simply wasn’t fast enough to maintain third place at the Tuscan Grand P🧔rix as he dropped down to🙈 eighth come the Formula 1 chequered flag.

Leclerc enjoyed a strong ꧙start♌ to Ferrari’s 1000th grand prix, moving ahead of Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon on the opening lap for third place.

Once the initial Safety Car and red flag periods were over, Leclerc still maintained third but quickly dropped behind a number❀ of Ferrari’s midfield rivals.

The Monegasque driver eventu🎃ally classified in eighth place, benefitting f🧜rom Kimi Raikkonen’s time penalty for cutting the pit lane entry.

Reflecting on his race, Leclerc admitted the Ferrari car was “🧸just slow” at Mugello.

“We were just slow,” L𝔍eclerc said. “There’s not much more to add. We didn’t have the pace. I𝕴 put myself in the best position possible, the two Mercs that were going away so I had free air, but just struggling so much with the car.

Leclerc sayꦐs Ferrari needs to understand why it is so inconsistent as it performed well in qualifying, but not in the race where𒁏as in previous races it has been the complete opposite.

“We need to work honestly and try to understand because some races were are not very competitive in quali but are then are very competitive in the race which has been the case at the beginning of the season, now we seem to have done a good job in quali but struggling massivꦺely with the car in the race, it is a difficult moment.”

Sebastian Vettel recovered to finish tenth having picked up damage on𓄧 the opening lap of the race.

Like Leclerc, he was confused by Ferrari’s lack of pac♔e performance.

“Obviously we were fighting hard and trying everything to get the points,ꦫ” Vettel added. “Tight at the end with Kimi - we did everything we could. We weren’t quick enough. Why? Is always a good question and a difficult one to answer, there’s mo🍒re than one reason.

“Obviously we know th🙈at our car is not quick enough but today we would have expected to have a better race pace so ♔we need to have a look.”