Charles Leclerc suffered the next setback in the fight for the world championship at the Formula 1 Grand Prix in France. Because: The Ferrari driver drove his car into the tire wall after 18 laps. His team-mate then had encouraging words for the Monegasque.
Charles Leclerc was mostly annoyed with himself. “No, it wasn’t a technical problem,” the 24-year-old replied after the race on Sunday – although former world champion Nico Rosberg still has his doubts after studying the TV pictures. that it was only a driving error that led to the early end of the race.
Leclerc had spun entering the fast Beausset curve and finally hit the tire wall head-on. The beneficiary was, of all things, Red Bull opponent Max Verstappen, who ultimately scored 25 points more than the Ferrari driver.
Teammate Carlos Sainz, who finished fifth after starting 19th, tried to build up Charles Leclerc a little after the race. “I’m so incredibly sorry for what happened to him this year. He drives so well,” he said in a video released by the racing team.
Ferrari: Sainz encourages Leclerc
“What happened to him is normal. It can happen to any driver, it happened to me at the beginning of the year. Max (world champion Verstappen, editor’s note) could also do something like that,” emphasized the Spaniard: “We always go to the limit and always want to do the best. So things like that just happen. I’m sure he’ll recover quickly and come back stronger.”
Sainz himself “definitely had a lot of fun” catching up in Le Castellet. “Driving this car at this track was very special because we were very quick today.”
In fifth place, the 27-year-old was not only able to collect ten important points for the team and driver classification, Sainz also took home the award for the best driver of the race. “I’m very happy about it, now I’m even hungrier than ever.”