Tag: Mexico GP

Charles Leclerc addressed fans booing him after the Mexico City Grand Prix, stating he had nowhere to go in the collision that ended Sergio Perez’s race.

Perez had made an excellent start and tried to overtake both Leclerc and Max Verstappen around the outside into Turn 1. As Perez turned in on the Ferrari, Leclerc had Verstappen on his inside and was sandwiched. The contact saw Perez sustain significant right rear damage and retire, leading to a hostile reaction towards third-placed Leclerc after the checkered flag.

“A lot of booing, a lot of booing,” Leclerc said. “Guys, I mean honestly, I had nowhere to go. I was…in between the two Red Bulls. Unfortunately I touched Checo, but I had nowhere to go. It’s life; it damaged my car and unfortunately it ended the race of Checo, but on our end we maximized our race. I’m disappointed to end the race of Checo like that, but I really didn’t do it on purpose and I had nowhere to go.”

With Perez himself describing it as a racing incident after he tried to pull off a high-risk move, Leclerc agreed that it was just the combination of three cars into one corner.

“I think exactly the same,” the Ferrari driver said. “I had nowhere to go. I tried to stay on the right as much as possible, as close as I could to Max, but unfortunately there was no space anymore for me to be any further to the right. I think Checo was probably not aware that I had Max on my right and started to turn in, and when I saw that I knew that we would collide at one point, which we did. After that I was extremely surprised that I could finish the race anyway.”

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Leclerc ran second for a long spell but was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton after the red flag period caused by Kevin Magnussen’s crash, and says he thought his race was over after rate initial contact.

“Well we broke part of the front wing into Turn 1, and then on the radio I think they told me that we were lacking 10 or 15 points [of downforce], but to be honest I managed to drive around it and it didn’t feel too bad, so that was positive,” Leclerc said. “It’s not ideal to lose so many downforce points into Turn 1, but…we managed to do a good race from that moment onwards. It compromised our race a little bit.

“I’m pretty sure the car was better with a full front wing than before when we had half. Other than that, I don’t know if the car is completely fine. We’ll have to check it tonight because when I saw Checo with his rear wheel touching my front wheel I was like, ‘OK, that’s done for me,’ but I did two or three corners and it didn’t feel too bad — obviously not great, but not too bad — and I could finish the race. After the red flag we could fix the front wing, but it might be that we also find some other small things that weren’t in the right place.”

Although the podium was unexpected, Leclerc says it’s frustrating to have so many pole positions that are yet to be converted into a victory this season after his fourth such result.

“Very pleased is not the word because yesterday was, again, a really good day, a really good Saturday, really good pace in qualifying, but then we don’t quite have the car to win races on a Sunday,” he said. “That’s where we are going to try and put all our effort into for next year, in order to be better for the Sunday.”

Charles Leclerc admits he had no idea that Ferrari had the potential to take pole position even starting Q3 at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Success on Saturday in Mexico makes it two pole positions in a row for Leclerc who was also fastest in Austin last weekend, although he faded in the race to finish sixth before a post-race disqualification. On that occasion, Leclerc had looked quick from early in the session but Ferrari’s Q3 pace at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez came as a surprise.

“It’s a really big surprise but we keep saying that every time we get a pole position so people will stop believing what we say!” he joked. “I did not expect it…until really late in the session. I think in other sessions in Q1 we were on it and then we saw we had the potential for pole position, but today, until Q3, we had no idea that it was inside the car.

“For some reason in Q3 I managed to put more or less everything together apart from the last sector and the lap time came straight away. Then I was a bit surprised, but I think it still shows us that our car is still a bit peaky and we need to work in that direction to make it better in all conditions.”

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With the front row often at risk from the cars directly behind due to the slipstream effect on the long run to Turn 1, Leclerc believes he has the ability to fight for victory if he retains the lead off the line. However, both he and teammate Carlos Sainz are wary of overcomplicating the start with pre-agreed plans.

“Well I hope so. It’s a very difficult race; everything can happen, especially with the cooling where whichever car is behind will really need more management,” he said. “It can work in our favor, but for that we will need to get a good start, and starting first here is always tricky to keep that position into the first corner. We have had pretty good starts this year so I am confident that we can keep that first place into Turn 1 and then we will try and do our best race.

“To be honest, we haven’t discussed yet and we will discuss about it, but at the same time it is very difficult to predict what is going to happen. It is basically a result of how good a start we will have and then we’ll adapt. Obviously we won’t take too many risks between the cars, but apart from that it’s difficult to plan what’s happening at the start. It depends if I have a good start, if I have a bad start, so it’s difficult to plan.”

Charles Leclerc and Scuderia Ferrari conjured a shock front-row lockout after an unpredictable qualifying hour at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Leclerc beat teammate Carlos Sainz by 0.067s despite a difficult build-up to qualifying that saw the team off the pace during practice and both flirting with elimination in Q2.

Both drivers needed only their first laps of the session to secure the front row. Track conditions appeared to peak just as the red cars took their first set of fresh softs, and neither was able to improve with their second runs.

It appeared to open the door to Max Verstappen, a close third, to pinch the position, and a purple middle sector appeared to signify the seeming inevitable, but the Dutchman fell short by 0.097s, confirming the unlikely Ferrari front row.

“To be honest, I did not expect to be on pole position today,” Leclerc said. “For some reason when we put everything together we went well. On new tires we found a lot.”

Sainz said the performance was “very strange” and that his P2 lap was the first one he put together all weekend, but he was optimistic having two cars on the front row could open the door to a strategic victory.

“We are not as strong in high fuel as we are on low fuel,” he said. “We’re going to see what we can do tomorrow to keep those tires alive, to keep that Red Bull behind.

“Having two cars in front is a good advantage, so we’re going to try out best.”

Verstappen blamed his loss of pole on pushing too hard in the low-grip conditions, but the Dutchman was unconcerned about the battle for victory.

“It’s a very long race,” he said. “Of course I would’ve liked to start first, but we’ll have a good slipstream into Turn 1.”

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Verstappen, however, is facing a post-session investigation for blocking pit lane exit, a similar offense to that which earned him a reprimand in Singapore — though stewards said afterwards it should have earned a harsher punishment.

The driver with the most to gain from a potential penalty is Daniel Ricciardo, who was superb to qualify fourth for AlphaTauri. The Australian was just 0.216s short of battling for pole in his fourth Q3 session of the season and second since his comeback from a broken hand. He beat Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez, who mustered fifth for his home race ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Oscar Piastri, George Russell and Alfa Romeo teammates Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.

Along with Verstappen, three other top-10 drivers are under stewards investigations on Saturday evening: George Russell is also being looked into for blocking the pit lane exit attempting to find a gap in traffic; Russell, Lando Norris and Zhou are accused of lapping too slowly on their out-laps; and Hamilton is alleged to have failed to slow under yellow flags.

Pierre Gasly will start 11th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso, whose Aston Martin has looked out of shape all weekend.

Alex Albon was knocked out 14th after having a Q3-worthy time deleted shortly after the end of the segment for cutting Turn 2, promoting Zhou into the top 10.

Yuki Tsunoda qualified 15th but will be demoted to last on the grid with penalties for exceeding his power unit and gearbox penalties. Esteban Ocon qualified 16th ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Lance Stroll.

Norris, who had been expected to contend for the front row, found himself knocked out 19th and last of those who set a time. McLaren sent the Briton out for his first run on medium tires but aborted the run in anticipation of a stint on softs at the end of the session.

Norris was sent out with fuel and time to complete two laps as a precaution, but he spoiled his first time with a slide through the stadium section, leaving him in the knockout zone. His last-gasp lap was then undermined by Fernando Alonso spinning at Turn 3, bringing out yellow flags, forcing the McLaren driver to abandon his lap and accept 19th in the order.

Logan Sargeant qualified last without a time set, having had all his laps deleted for exceeding track limits and then getting caught in traffic at the end of Q1.