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

Leclerc qualified a mediocre s🌟eventh but made the most of a chaotic season-opener to finish runner-up at the Red Bull Ring for🍌 the second season running.

The Monegasque pulled of🐈f 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 Albon.  

“Well I am extremely happy to be honest, it feels like a victory today,'' Leclerc said. “We have been struggling s🎶ince the beginning of the weekend. 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, also with the strategy, with our ch⛄oices.''

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

Its main deficiency seems to be on the straights - a stark contrast to last season - and Leclerc is hopeful the upgrad♏e in Hungary can help remedy the 🅰SF1000's current issues.

“We are quick around the corners but we struggle [on the straights]. We will have a new package in Hungar𒊎y to try to fix this issue.

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