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Leclerc won Sunday’s race from Oscar Piastri after starting from pole and leading every lap.
It was a victory on home soil for the 26-year-old, who had failed to convert pole to victory on two previous occasions.
“Obviously, Monza in 2019 was extremely special, but Monaco is the Grand Prix that made me dream of becoming a Formula 1 driver,” he said of the victory.
“I remember being so young and watching the race with my friends, obviously with my father, that has done absolutely everything for me to get to where I am today.
“I feel like I don’t only accomplish a dream of mine today, but also one of his.”
Leclerc lost his father in 2017, during what proved to be his son’s successful Formula 2 campaign.
During his final laps in Monaco on Sunday, memories of his father and youth flooded back, the Ferrari driver admitted his eyes welled up as he raced.
“I think where I struggled most to actually contain my emotions was during the last 10 laps of the race,” he admitted.
“I realised, actually, two laps to the end, that I was struggling to see out of the tunnel just because I had tears in my eyes.
“I was like, ‘f**k, Charles, you cannot do that now, you still have two laps to finish’.
“Especially on a track like Monaco, you have to be on it all the way to the end.
“It was very difficult to contain those emotions, those thoughts again, of the people that have helped me to get to where I am today.
“It’s only a win. The season is still very, very long. It’s 25 points like any other wins.
“However, emotionally, this one means so much.”
The influx of memories and emotions was, for Leclerc, a new experience while racing.
“In every race I have done, there’s been not one race where I was thinking about this kind of personal stuff inside the car, because you’ve got to stay on it.
“Maybe Baku in 2017, obviously everything was still very fresh for me, so it was difficult to manage mentally.
“However, it’s probably the first time in my career that it happened again while driving, where you’ve got these flashbacks of all these moments that we have spent together, all the sacrifices that he has done for me to get to where I am.
“It’s not only my dream, but it was both of our dreams to get there.
“Obviously, my whole family was supporting and was obviously dreaming of that moment, which makes it even more special.”
Leclerc’s drive to victory was masterful.
He controlled the pace, managing the train of cars behind that included Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz, and Lando Norris, to ensure none of them had a pit stop window behind.
That meant driving far slower than he could have before sprinting clear in the final laps to win by seven seconds at the chequered flag.
“We had a target gap with [George] Russell that we didn’t want to open too much,” Leclerc revealed.
“I wasn’t too much for that because I felt like I was a lot off the pace and what I didn’t want is that Oscar started to push straight away and then you don’t have references.
“I was going so slow in the middle of the race that if you start to push, then you don’t really know where to brake and that’s where mistakes can happen.
“So I just wanted to get into the rhythm and start to push a bit more, but obviously, the team was telling me, slow down, slow down, slow down.
“Then in the last 15 laps, I could push a bit more and feel a bit more the car. And there, I enjoyed it a lot more.”
Victory in Monaco was the sixth of Leclerc’s career and his first since Austria in 2022.
