Austrian Grand Prix – Leclerc is back

Like in the Sprint race, Charles Leclerc was unable to get the better of Max Verstappen at the start. However, the Monegasque managed to stay close to his rival and put pressure on him. From the 10th lap onwards, the Ferrari driver launched a series of attacks on the Dutchman. Being very present in Verstappen’s rear-view mirrors, Leclerc made a superb dive on the 12th lap, just before the 4th corner. Surprising Max Verstappen, Leclerc took the lead in the race.

While his rival decided to pit very early, the Ferrari pit wall extended the first stint of the red cars for as long as possible. By avoiding having to fight through traffic, the red cars gained valuable tenths of a second on the reigning world champion.

Having stopped on the 27th lap, Leclerc was melting like snow in the sun on Max Verstappen. 5 laps later, on the 32nd lap, the car marked with the number 16 took the lead of the race thanks to an overtaking maneuver at the 3rd turn. The Monte-Carlo native found himself alone at the front. Indeed, his teammate Carlos Sainz was having a lot of difficulties keeping up with Leclerc’s pace.

This scenario repeated itself in an almost identical way between the 49th and 51st lap. After returning to the pit for the second time, Charles Leclerc had a much superior pace compared to Max Verstappen. He reclaimed the first position on the 51st lap of the race.

Charles Leclerc spoke to Canal+ about his many battles with Max Verstappen: (en) The first one was the most challenging because we had the same tires, but then we managed to stop much later thanks to our overall performance, which allowed us to always have fresher tires. The last two times were easier.

Approaching the final laps of the race, the race leader was complaining on the radio about his accelerator pedal. His engineer confirmed to him that it wasn’t always returning to the zero position, meaning the released position. Despite this stubborn pedal, the Ferrari driver emerged victorious for the first time since the Australian Grand Prix. Leclerc thus ends a drought of 5 races without podiums.

It was really challenging, especially in turn 3 where I had a lot of understeer, I struggled to stop the car. Fortunately, the car made it to the finish line and we won. I think we all needed it after the last few races, especially from my perspective where it was complicated and we had engine or strategy issues.

This Austrian Grand Prix allowed Charles Leclerc to regain the second position in the driver’s championship. The Monegasque is 38 points behind Max Verstappen.