Charles Leclerc has revealed more details about his controversial pass on Max Verstappen in the closing stages of the Spanish GP.
The closing laps of the Spanish GP saw an opportunity too good to refuse for Charles Leclerc. Presented with a chance to pass Max Verstappen, he grasped it with both hands.
He passed the Red Bull in a move that saw both cars briefly collide at 190mph on the pits straight. Speaking in the post race press conference, Charles Leclerc explained how he pulled off the pass.
He said seeing the Red Bull on the hard tyre gave him confidence he could pass the seven-time world champion.
“From the moment where I knew that Max was on a Hard tyre, I was like, ‘OK, that’s not a great tyre to be on for the last five laps’, especially if there’s no saving or whatsoever.
“So, I knew that it was a full attack for me and that there was an opportunity to finish on the podium. Max went with a lot of commitment in the last corner, lost the rear on exit, and then I was basically side by side, and I was very happy to take the third place. And then we touched on the pit straight.
Leclerc has no issue with controversial pass
Asked about Verstappen’s vocal disagreement with the move Leclerc took a pragmatic answer. He believes the pass was within regulations.
” I probably would have been very vocal if it was the other way around as well, because you are fighting for third place.
“So, you are just trying everything to get that third place back, and I think he knew that on track it would be very difficult with the tyres he was on. So, yeah, I mean, honestly, I don’t have any particular feeling about it. There was nothing special.
“I overtook on the inside. He tried to squeeze me on the dirty side of the track, then I had the upper hand because I had more speed because of the mistake he had done. And then I was trying to take the slipstream of the McLaren, went a tiny bit to the left.
He didn’t seem to want to move at all. And we touched a little bit, but there was nothing special.“
Asked if two podiums in two races gave him confidence ahead of the Canadian GP, Charles Leclerc gave a measured response.
“Today, we finished on the podium because we were lucky with the Safety Car. Otherwise, I think fourth was our position.
“So, I don’t think I have much more confidence in order to finish on the podium consistently. But, yeah, we are getting there. I guess we start to understand the car, how we can set it up in order to extract the maximum out of it.
“But still, we need to go in quite extreme directions, which is not so nice to drive. So, unless we have upgrades very soon, I think it’s going to be difficult to be fighting regularly for podiums.
Team-mate Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, languished down in sixth, passed by Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber. When asked why he failed to keep the German behind, Hamilton simply said, ” I had no speed at the end.”
He gave a brief and disconsolate response when asked what he had learned about the car in Barcelona. “Absolutely nothing”, he replied.
