Charles Leclerc had said it as soon as yesterday’s qualifying ended: “Pole position is a good result, but perhaps it’s not the best position to start here in Mexico”. In fact, he was a good prophet.
The Ferrari driver found himself immediately overtaken by Max Verstappen, but already at the first corner he saw his race lose almost all chances of taking home the first victory of the season.
Immediately flanked by the two Red Bulls, Leclerc found himself sandwiched between Max Verstappen on the right and Sergio Perez on the left. The Mexican, home idol, tried to close the corner to take first position but anticipated the maneuver too much, ending up crashing against the front left wheel of the SF-23 number 16.
Perez was the one who got the worst of it, ending up off the track and then forced to retire: the damage sustained to his RB19 in the contact with Leclerc was too great. At that point Charles found himself racing with a ruined front wing (he lost the left endplate) and with Max Verstappen in front of him.
The intervention of the Safety Car after Kevin Magnussen’s bad accident completely clipped the wings of the red number 16, because Leclerc had been called to the pits to change tires a few minutes earlier. Verstappen, however, was able to take advantage of the opportunity for a ‘free’ pit stop, returning to the track ahead of everyone and with a strategy equal to that of the Monegasque.
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Contact between Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23 and Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB19 at the starting line
At the end of the race, Leclerc wanted to give an explanation for what happened in the early stages, i.e. regarding the contact with Perez which sent the home idol out at the Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.
“I feel a lot of disapproval from the public, but guys, I didn’t have space to go anywhere. I found myself in the middle of the two Red Bulls and I touched Checo, but I really didn’t have space.”
“It’s life. He damaged my car and his race ended there. For our part, we achieved the maximum possible in this race. I’m sorry to have ended Sergio’s race like that, but I really didn’t have space”.
Leclerc then completed the Grand Prix in third place, also beaten by Lewis Hamilton with a set of Medium tires which worked much better than the Hard ones fitted in the only pit stop made by the Monegasque in the race.
“After the restart we suffered a bit with the Hard tyres, while Lewis was very fast with the Mediums. They managed to manage the tires very well. They were simply better than us. That’s how things are.”
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