Charles Leclerc has walked away from Sunday’s French Grand Prix incredibly frustrated, after crashing out of the race from the lead. The Monégasque took an impressive pole position on Saturday afternoon and was controlling the pack in the early stages of the Grand Prix, but found himself under pressure from a very quick Max Verstappen.
On lap eighteen, the number sixteen driver took a wider line through Turn Eleven and went into a spin after hitting the white line. Leclerc’s Scuderia Ferrari car spun through the colourful run-off area where he gently hit the wall, and was unable to reverse his way out; prompting the first and only real Safety car of the event. Thankfully, Leclerc was okay.
The Ferrari driver’s initial radio message, after the accident, hinted at an issue with the throttle being the cause of the spin; just two weeks after struggling with throttle sticking in Austria. However, Leclerc took the blame for the crash in his post-race interview, while Verstappen cruised his way to victory and extended his championship lead.
“I’m very disappointed. This is not the outcome that I wanted today, as we had the pace to win. I made a mistake and paid the price for it. Now I will head home to reset before the next race in Hungary, where I will give it my all once again.
“It was a hard race today” – Carlos Sainz Jr
The French Grand Prix was also less-than-smooth for Carlos Sainz Jr, who was already at a disadvantage at the start of the weekend when he took a penalty for exceeding component limits on his car. The Spaniard started from nineteenth on the grid and was initially stuck in a DRS train, before charging through the field to finish fourth.
Ferrari’s strategy; however, raised a lot of eyebrows when they brought Sainz into the pits with ten laps to go.
Sainz received a five-second penalty earlier in the event as a result of an unsafe release, and fitted a set of Medium tyres at his first pit-stop. While battling with George Russell for fourth-place, the one-time race winner requested to pit for a new set of tyres to attack at the end of the race with, as he was the fastest man on track. Ferrari declined his pit-stop request, and Sainz continued at a rapid pace.
A few laps later, the Ferrari driver made an exceptional move on Sergio Pérez in the final sector to take the final podium place. Ferrari then requested Sainz to pit (to which the Spaniard strongly suggested against doing so) before executing the stop with ten laps to go. Sainz served his penalty and emerged ninth, but stormed back through the field to fourth-place.
This strategy confused a lot of people, as Ferrari already had track position, and Sainz could have held his ground while Pérez and Russell battled it out behind, though, the Italian team insists that the tyres wouldn’t have made it to the end of the race. Sainz branded his pit-stop and penalty as ‘unlucky’, but was still able to clinch ‘Driver of The Day’.
“It was a hard race today but I also enjoyed going through the field, making lots of overtakes. To make places up with the Hards was tricky but as soon as I put [on] the Mediums the pace improved a lot and I managed to make good moves. I gave everything out there today and, even though we were a bit unlucky with the pit stop and the penalty, we managed to fight at the front.
“Like always, we will review everything these couple of days to see where we can improve and hopefully we can bring home a better result before the summer break. A pity for Charles as he was doing a great race. We’ll keep pushing.”
Ferrari now find themselves eighty-two points behind Oracle Red Bull Racing in the Constructors’ Championship, while Leclerc trails Verstappen by sixty-three points in the Drivers’ Championship.
