Leclerc: We lost Monaco GP victory on Saturday

Leclerc missed out on pole to Lando Norris by the slightest of margins, and the latter went on to win the race, soaking up the pressure from the former towards the end of the race as the pair came upon the late-stopping Max Verstappen, who was driving around at a leisurely pace hoping for a Red Flag or a Safety Car.

That meant Norris did not have clean air, and Leclerc started pressuring him, hoping for an error from the McLaren driver, who ultimately kept his cool with the #16 Ferrari crossing the line second.

"It's a shame we couldn't take the win today, but we gave it everything," Leclerc said in Ferrari's race report. "At end of the day, we lost the victory yesterday and Lando (Norris) just did a better job and he deserves this win.

"On the upside, P2 exceeds the expectations we had going into this weekend so overall it's a good finish. As Ferrari, we are lucky to have great support all around the world, but being from here and seeing all the Monegasque people behind me really warms my heart.

"I realised my childhood dream last year by winning here, unfortunately it didn't work out today but I hope we will be on the top step again next year," Leclerc concluded.

Lewis Hamilton, in the sister car, finished the race in fifth place but was over 50 seconds behind the leaders. He started the race from seventh, on the back foot, after qualifying fourth but receiving a grid penalty for impeding Verstappen.

Hamilton reflected: "I knew starting in P7 was going to be a challenge today, but it's good to see our progress overall.

"Once I found some clear air, I was able to make up a bit of ground, although we lost quite a bit of time in traffic and the balance wasn’t quite where we wanted it.

"Still, we came away with a podium for Charles, as well as some solid points for the team and it’s encouraging we’re heading in the right direction.

"We made a step forward in qualifying, which was a key focus," Hamilton added, trying to find some positives. "So a big thanks to everyone for the hard work in getting the car into a more competitive place across the whole weekend.

"We’ll keep pushing and look to build on this in Barcelona," the seven-time Formula 1 champion concluded.

Ferraro boss Fred Vasseur summed up his team's Monaco weekend; he said: "Overall, we can be pleased with this result because today we got the most we could from the race, especially considering how difficult it is to overtake here.

"With Lewis’ penalty we effectively had just one car to take the fight to the two McLarens, which put us slightly on the back foot.

"However, Charles did a very good job managing that situation and putting constant pressure on Lando (Norris), while Lewis showed strong pace, getting back up to P5 until he got caught in traffic.

"In recent races we’ve made a step forward in high-speed corners, and this weekend we’ve also seen progress at low speed, which is encouraging.

"We need to keep working and focusing on ourselves in order to continue in this vein," the Frenchman concluded.