F1 News
Leclerc on Verstappen collision: "For me it was pretty clear"
- Nicolás Quarles van Ufford
Ferrari star Charles Leclerc was overtaken for the lead on the penultimate lap of the Austrian Grand Prix by Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen, and the Monegasque shared his view on the move as there was contact between the two 21-year-olds.
Leclerc was comfortably in the lead for the bulk of the race, with Verstappen dropping to P7 after a horrible start from P2, but the Dutchman came back as the race progressed. Verstappen came out ahead of Hamilton after his pit stop, and picked off Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel to get himself positioned behind Leclerc again.
The initial gap was five seconds, but with a handful of laps to go, Verstappen was right in the Monegasque's gearbox, and he eventually made a move stick to get into the lead. At turn three, the Dutchman sent his RB15 down the inside, and he banged wheels with Leclerc to force the Ferrari driver off track.
The incident is under investigation as we speak, but Leclerc knows what he wants to happen.
"I'll let the stewards decide, but for me in the car it was pretty clear," Leclerc told Martin Brundle on the grid.
"I don't know how it looked on the outside, but we will see.
"I was on the outside just like the lap before, it was fine because he left the space for the exit on the corner, but he didn't on the next lap, so we touched and I had to go wide and then obviously I didn't have another chance to pass back, so it's a shame."
Leclerc pointed out degradation on his tyres was the main reason why Verstappen came as close as he did in the first place.
"Overall the race was good, at the end I had a bit more degradation than I thought so Max came back."