Leclerc overjoyed with ‘surprise’ podium in Mexico as Ferrari move up to P2 in Teams’ Championship

Charles Leclerc was thrilled to claim a second podium in as many weekends at the Mexico City Grand Prix, with the Monegasque admitting that the result came as a “surprise” on a day in which Ferrari overtook Mercedes for P2 in the Teams’ Championship.

Having lined up in second place on the grid, Leclerc was one of four cars to enter Turn 1 vying for the lead as the race got underway. While he had to settle for second behind McLaren’s Lando Norris, that position came under threat later in the 71-lap event when Max Verstappen chased him down, setting up a thrilling battle in the final moments.

Despite the Red Bull driver’s charge – which was slightly interrupted amid a Virtual Safety Car phase during the closing stages – Leclerc was able to hold onto P2, marking another visit to the rostrum after his P3 result one week ago in Austin.

“Very happy with this weekend,” the 28-year-old said after the chequered flag. “United States was very positive for us but we didn't know what to expect for this weekend, and to end up again on the podium is a great surprise. Very happy to be on this amazing podium once again.”

Reflecting further on how he managed his medium tyres to the end in his fight with Verstappen, Leclerc added: “I was quite happy about the [Virtual] Safety Car at the end. My tyres were completely gone and I could see Max was coming back on the softer tyre, so it was tough. I think the [Virtual] Safety Car saved me at the end.”

Sharing more of his thoughts on the race later on, Leclerc also looked back to the eventful start of the Grand Prix.

“I hated every metre of that first corner!” the eight-time race winner laughed. “There was the start, which wasn’t a great one – strangely that kind of helped me because I don’t think Lando would have come back to the right if I had a good start, so luckily I could have a slipstream.

“But then after that I was just a passenger trying to defend my place. I think Lewis [Hamilton] didn’t especially know that there was Max on the outside of me and that created… everything was super, super tight. But luckily my race or Lewis’ race didn’t end up here because I really thought it would.”

Four race weekends remain in the 2025 season, the next being the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on November 7-9.

Pushed on whether his back-to-back podiums give some extra confidence entering into those final events, Leclerc answered: “Yeah, I think we are doing a really good job at extracting every single bit out of this car.

“In the last two weekends I don’t think we’ve got anything to be angry about – I think we really did everything we could. The potential of the car remains the same and we know that in the development race we stopped earlier than the others to focus on next year, but I think we are doing a really good job with what we have.”