Dutch Grand Prix: Leclerc no longer sees the title as “a realistic goal”
Leclerc finished once again quite far from Verstappen during this Grand Prix. It was a performance below what the Monegasque can achieve, who can definitely say goodbye to the title, currently over 100 points behind Verstappen.
During the Dutch Grand Prix, Leclerc ended up in a nearly miraculous 3rd place, behind Russell and Verstappen. However, he was quite far away from them, with a gap of over 10 seconds behind Verstappen and over 6 seconds behind Russell. The Ferrari lacked performance.
It could have been worse without the intervention of the safety car, which reshuffled the deck, and without Mercedes’ mistake of not bringing Hamilton in for new tires. He managed to overtake Hamilton a few laps before the end.
However, the weekend was starting off quite well for the Monegasque driver. He finished 6th in the first free practice session before finishing first twice in a row in the two following sessions. A promising start that announced a great weekend ahead.
During the qualifying session, the Ferrari driver achieves a very good time and believes he has secured pole position. However, that was without taking into account Verstappen, who manages to finish with a better time by 21 milliseconds. A great frustration for Leclerc, who is putting things into perspective.
The behavior of my car has improved over the course of the qualifications. Not enough to get the pole position, unfortunately. However, we are stronger here than at Spa-Francorchamps.
A difficult race.
Leclerc launches from second position on the front row. While the driver makes an almost perfect start, he gets slowed down by Verstappen who blocks him, preventing him from overtaking him in the first corner.
He is making a good start to the race, his pit stops are quite quick unlike his teammate, but he is being outpaced by the Mercedes and Verstappen.
The intervention of the virtual safety car penalizes Leclerc, who is then in 4th place. With this intervention, the drivers go to the pits to change their tires, but Leclerc made the mistake of doing it one lap too early.
He still managed to climb back on the podium thanks to a strategic mistake on Hamilton’s part and the safety car. But he still trails far behind Verstappen and considers him much stronger this year.
To be honest, it was difficult to do much better. We were a bit unlucky with the VSC, but I don’t know if it changed anything. Max was too fast today.
« As I said in Spa, the gap is huge now. We weren’t fast enough in the race. So, we will take things race by race, try to maximize our potential, and see what is possible.
»
When Laurent Dupin asks him if he is saying goodbye to the championship, Leclerc is now realistic: (e) I will never say goodbye because it’s not mathematically over, but realistically it seems very complicated.
The Monegasque driver is 2nd in the overall standings with the same number of points as Perez, and he will have to fight next week to hold onto this second place.
