A weekend full of twists for Leclerc in Mexico, booed on the podium

It was quite an astonishing weekend for Charles Leclerc in Mexico. The Monegasque driver secured a surprising 22nd pole position at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Leclerc, even surprised himself, had even stated prior to the qualifying sessions that he didn’t think he would be fighting for the front row. However, he managed to outpace Max Verstappen by 0.097 seconds and his teammate Carlos Sainz by 0.067 seconds to start at the front of the race on Sunday.

During the race, Charles Leclerc did not lead the pack for long. With his teammate Carlos Sainz, they left the door open, allowing Max Verstappen, who had a brilliant start, to gain two positions and take the lead of the race. On his left, Sergio Perez also almost took advantage of it, however, the Mexican collided with the Ferrari and ended up out of the race at the end of the first straight. Leclerc’s car, especially the left front wing, was heavily damaged, but it did not impact his performance much.

A delicate second start.

The first 20 laps, Leclerc was a bit isolated in second position. Max Verstappen quickly pulled away. However, the Dutchman made a pit stop on the 20th lap, allowing Charles Leclerc to regain the lead for several laps. On the 31st lap, the driver with the number 16 returned to the pit to once again give the lead of the race to Verstappen. Leclerc, back in second place, maintained his position until the red flag, four laps later. Until this stop, Leclerc’s pace was very encouraging, despite the damage to his car.

For the race restart, Leclerc almost got caught off guard again, this time by Hamilton. We struggled on the hard tires after the race restart, declared the one who finished the race in 3rd place, speaking to the FIA microphone. Lewis was very fast on the intermediates and they managed their tire degradation perfectly. They were simply better today, it happens.

Leclerc was booed at the end of the race on the podium.

Leclerc held on for four laps before the pace of the Mercedes got the better of him. Leclerc completed the 71 laps of the Mexican Grand Prix on hard tires. However, he quickly fell behind Hamilton. He finished at the back of the podium, trailing Hamilton by 9.249 seconds and leading Sainz by 4.030 seconds.

Heavily booed during the post-race interview, Charles Leclerc had a word of apology for Perez who was racing at home. “Honestly, I had nowhere to go,” explained the Ferrari driver. “I was between the two Red Bulls and unfortunately I touched Checo, but I had no way out. That’s life. It damaged my car, but we tried to maximize our chances in the race after that. I am disappointed and sad that Perez’s race ended like this.”

Leclerc obtained his 4th podium of the season in Mexico.