Challenge starting
How much Formula 1 had missed wheel-to-wheel duels between Max Verstappen And Charles Leclerc, which had characterized the first half of the last championship, we rediscovered it immediately, at the first corner of the Las Vegas GP. The two contenders found themselves side by side in turn 1 and sparks immediately flew. In fact, the Dutchman, with a maneuver that was very reminiscent of the one adopted against Hamilton in the 2021 Brazilian GP, greatly widened the trajectory, pushing out the Monegasque from Ferrari and also leaving the limits of the track. Over the radio, Leclerc was understandably very heated, demanding immediate restitution of the position. Verstappen and Red Bull chose not to let the #16 SF-23 slip away and so the stewards decided to punish the Hasselt champion with a five-second penalty.
The penalty, served by Verstappen during the first pit stop, made the race even more lively and balanced, but it was not enough to prevent him from celebrating victory number 18 of the season, right in front of a fantastic Leclerc, who recovered the second step of the podium with a magnificent overtaking of Sergio Perez on the last lap. After the match, both in front of TV journalists and in the press conference, one of the topics on which the native of the Principality was most asked was precisely the duel at the start with Verstappen.
Post-race clarification
However, those who expected vitriolic declarations between the two friend-rivals were disappointed. In fact, Leclerc explained that he had clarified with the world champion immediately after the race, in one of their now ‘traditional’ post-GP chats whose images have often gone viral on social networks. The only aspect that the Ferrari driver had to object to was the fact that one can now ‘choose’ to cash in on five seconds, rather than being forced to give back the position gained irregularly to the opponent. “Max already came to me and explained the situation to me – commented Leclerc – obviously it was a truly extreme maneuver. I think the five second penalty is deserved. We were very close.”
“However, I tried to accelerate even off the track – added Leclerc – but the adhesion was very low. He was penalized, he served the penalty and I think that was the right penalty to give. However I believe that in this type of situation it would be better for the FIA to ask for the position to be returnedbecause I believe there is a good advantage in taking care of the tires when you have free air“.
Like in the time of karting
The two then also created a nice back and forth at the press conferencealso recalling their karting days, with a ‘quote’ from a widely viewed video on YouTube which takes us back to the beginning of their career: “I think debriefing is something we do naturally. We already did it in our karting days. It’s especially nice when you have a good race“, commented Verstappen. “Exactly, but the debriefings we did back then were a little more tense“, added Leclerc smiling. “Just an accident“, commented Verstappen, imitating with his accent the boy Leclerc who commented on a contact between the two. A beautiful and sporting dualism which, means permitting, could be rekindled in 2024.
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