Charles Leclerc has said "tough times never last, only tough people last" after claiming a victory 20 months in the making at the British Grand Prix.
Leclerc beat Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli on the run down to Turn 1 and controlled the contest for his first win since the U.S. Grand Prix on October, 20 2024, a drought stretching 37 races.
"Finally!" Leclerc said over the radio after the race, which finished under a Safety Car after Max Verstappen's late spin into the gravel at Stowe.
"This one feels particularly good, even though I wished a bit of more normal ending, but, hard work paid off. Tough times never last, only tough people last!"
The result marked a big turnaround for Leclerc, who has struggled for form this year while teammate Lewis Hamilton has been excelling in the other car.
While Hamilton had won in Spain last month, Leclerc had not even been on the podium since the Japanese Grand Prix at the end of March, the third race of the year.
Speaking afterwards, Leclerc said everything clicked together when it mattered.
"It feels incredible," Leclerc said. "Maybe it did not finish the way I would have dreamed of, but to win after the last few weekends that have been particularly difficult is incredible.
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"All the work that we put into trying to get the feeling back in the car... I felt like I had found something yesterday between the sprint race and qualifying, but I had to confirm that today, and today the feeling was back where it needs to be, so I'm so incredibly happy."
Reflecting on recent weeks, he added: "After Monaco, the feeling wasn't there. I crashed in qualifying, then in the race we had an issue, and that ended our race.
"Then, Saturday in Barcelona, the feeling was good, but then I crashed again, so that was very difficult mentally. And then on Sunday, we had an issue with the car, and Austria wasn't so great, but here we managed to put everything together, and I really hope I can keep that momentum going forward. And a huge thank you to the team for having worked so hard."