Charles Leclerc details agony after Monaco victory miss: 'I really believed'

Charles Leclerc detailed that he "really believed" he could win a second consecutive Monaco Grand Prix right until the end of the race. 

The Monegasque knew the chances of securing back-to-back Circuit de Monaco victories was slim after missing out on pole to Lando Norris, who set a new lap record. 

However, the Ferrari driver spent the night ahead of the race thinking about where he could stun the Briton and make a move for the lead of the grand prix. 

His best opportunity came at the first corner, where Norris had a huge lock-up as he braked for Sainte Devote. Norris just got away with it, before Leclerc settled into second place.

From that point, missing out on the win seemed inevitable, although Leclerc believed that it was possible right until the final lap, due to Max Verstappen having bunched the leaders ahead of pitting.

"It's very difficult," Leclerc said. "When Max at the end was in front, I really believed in it until the very end. I thought about it all night, the two or three places where I could try something on Lando, and I was willing to take all the risks possible to try and get that win. 

"But, unfortunately, these opportunities never came. Or at least I had maybe two or three laps where I was like, 'OK, maybe I go for it,' but Lando straight away saw those and defended very well. 

"So I basically couldn't really go and try something. At the end, there were no opportunities for me."

Leclerc unsure if new cars will improve overtaking

Overtaking in general was, once again, effectively impossible in Monaco, despite the new mandatory two-stop rule. 

A general complaint has been the size of the current F1 cars; however, the new power unit regulations to be introduced next season will see the size reduce.

When asked if next year's cars will make overtaking easier, Leclerc answered: "Oh, that’s a very difficult question to answer because honestly, I don’t even know how much smaller they will be.

"I think Monaco is always going to be tricky, and I think you just adapt the way you defend to the width of the car you have behind.

"So, yeah, I don’t have the answer, but I hope that next year overtaking will be a little bit easier here in Monaco."