Leclerc delivers Ferrari title warning after 'dream' Austin victory

Charles Leclerc has delivered Ferrari's rivals a warning that the team is "targeting the title", following a stunning victory in the United States Grand Prix. 

Leclerc cruised to an emphatic victory at the Circuit of the Americas that Ferrari could have only "dreamed" of, with the Monegasque's pace having been unmatched. 

Starting from fourth, Leclerc found himself in the lead on the entry to the second corner after a superb start. 

He overtook Carlos Sainz, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, the latter two as a result of the pair squabbling for position. 

Once in the lead, Leclerc quickly broke the one-second barrier to the chasing pack, before finishing several seconds ahead of Sainz who completed a Ferrari one-two.

"Very, very happy," said Leclerc. "It hasn't been an easy weekend until now. 

"I've been struggling a bit with the feeling with the car, but I had the confidence that in the race the feeling would be better, and it was the case. We've seen it yesterday in sprint race. 

"We were a bit not scared, but we thought that the others would improve a lot more today, but we still have the upper hand. So really happy with today, one-two for the team, we couldn't have dreamed for better."

He later continued: "We are still targeting the title, it's a long way to go but it's a good start to this triple-header."

Leclerc's magic start

Leclerc's start was pivotal to his victory, which all began with an excellent launch from the line. 

He opted to stick to the inside at the first corner, a decision which worked perfectly after Verstappen and Norris went extremely wide. 

Norris and Verstappen were duelling at Turn 1, with the pair running wide allowing Leclerc to cut underneath the duo. 

Leclerc recognised the importance of his start, and revealed that he learnt from a mistake he made in the sprint. 

"It was a good turn one!" smiled Leclerc. "That's exactly what I wanted to do, and we had a really good launch. I knew that it was going to be very tight into Turn 1. 

"Yesterday, I was a little bit the victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Today, I gained from it, and that obviously helped quite a lot our first stint, because we had mega pace. 

"And then in the second stint, it was all about managing behind, but we did a great job. The pace of the car today and this weekend overall, was really, really good, and that's mostly thanks to the engineers. 

"They've been working like crazy in the last few months to bring the upgrades that we've had in Singapore and in the last few races. And it seems to be paying off."