Leclerc reveals why he struggled to "keep his eyes on the track" at Monza

Having taken his second victory at the Italian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc has revealed how he can deal with the pressure at Monza and how family members add to the pressure.

Ferrari looked strong all through the weekend of the Italian Grand Prix, but Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz only qualified fourth and fifth on the grid, having missed the crucial final tenth of a second to be in contention for pole position.

Although Leclerc had a masterful start and executed an ambitious move on McLaren's Lando Norris on the first lap to move himself up into second place, Oscar Piastri initially looked in control of the victory. But McLaren made an unexpected decision to call the Australian in for a second stop while Ferrari elected to pursue an aggressive one-stop strategy with both its drivers.

McLaren's strategy sent Leclerc into the lead, and with the Monégasque having mastered his tyres during an extremely long stint, the Ferrari driver took an emotional victory in front of the Scuderia's passionate Tifosi.

Asked how he can deal with the pressure, Leclerc admitted that while Monza represents a stressful weekend, he has learned over the years to handle the expectations.

"I think more than me personally, yes, there's a little bit more expectations, which translates in a bit more pressure coming into the weekend. However, I think as drivers, we are quite used to it, so it's fine to deal with it. But I think more for the whole team there are lots of expectations for most of the team members.

"They all have at least one family member or very close friend in the grandstand and that adds a lot to it. Everybody wants to do super well in Italy, lots of Italians traveling from all over Italy just to see Ferrari and to cheer for us. So you also want to do well for the big support we have here, and that adds a little bit to the pressure.

"And then, other than that, we have so many events and things we've got to do from the Monday in Milan to the Sunday. That is quite tiring. So to manage all these things is not easy but once again in 2019 we did a great job managing that and this year we did a really good job managing that as well.

"But that's also what makes winning in Monza so special. It's also because all of this and especially because of the crazy support we have here.

Driving on much fresher tyres, Oscar Piastri was massively closing in on Leclerc in the final stages of the 53-lap Italian Grand Prix. Reflecting on the closing stages of the Monza round, the Monegasque said that he was not panicking too much, but he tried to look after his front tyres instead.

"Just like in 2019, the last 3, 4, 5 laps it was quite difficult to keep the eyes on the track and I was obviously looking a little bit in the grandstand, I could see everybody was standing up and that was really nice to see.

"In 2019 I remember there was my mum also in the grandstand because I didn't manage to have a paddock pass for her. This year, she actually had a paddock pass, so it's good. She could watch and experience both things, once in the grandstand and once in the paddock. But yeah, it's a very special feeling.

"I could also see some red smoke at one point. So I knew everybody was super excited, but I also knew that I had to finish the job and that I had to stay on it because Oscar had a really good pace. But yeah, in the last five, six laps, I felt like we had it. The tyres felt good and I could see that Oscar was not that fast to catch me before the end of the race if I was not doing any mistakes," said Leclerc.