Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari driver who fought Max Verstappen early in the United States Grand Prix Sprint, has now shared his thoughts on their conflict.
Max Verstappen’s aggressive start to the United States Grand Prix Sprint, in Charles Leclerc’s opinion, was “on the limit,” but he acknowledges that he “would have done exactly the same.”
Verstappen started the Sprint on pole and pushed Leclerc wide heading into Turn 1 after the Ferrari star began to gain on him. The move ensured Verstappen was not overtaken and also allowed Lewis Hamilton to overtake Leclerc.
Sincerely, if I had been in his shoes, I would have acted exactly the same, Leclerc said following the Sprint. It’s close to breaking point, but I’ve always said that’s how I prefer to fight. So, today didn’t go as planned, but that’s okay; it happens in racing, and I’m satisfied with it.
Turn 1 was very congested. Sadly, I lost momentum in my battle with Max, and Lewis will join me. I continued to try to navigate the outside of Turn 2, which was challenging with cold tires, and when I reached Turn 3, I realized there was no way I could continue without hitting Lewis, so I just lifted off.
From that point forward, it became very difficult.
Verstappen, meanwhile, was delighted with his Sprint win and remains confident he can win the Grand Prix despite the fact he will start from sixth. “The pace has been always there, just unfortunate with a track limits in the first qualifying,” he said.
“But things have been fairly simple today. The only thing, in my opinion, was lap one’s turn one attempt to maintain our lead. After that, I believe we simply settled in after a few laps. At one point, I could just keep an eye on my tires until the very end and enjoy myself a little bit by pushing a little bit harder.
“For a few laps, it was always around eight or nine tenths, but that was all controlled into the braking zone. The DRS is quite strong on this track with such large wings.
We all fell into our own rhythms once I passed the DRS, and I believe the pace of the car was excellent today. I will undoubtedly make an effort .
But with the pace I think we had today, hopefully with more fuel in the car tomorrow it will be even better. We will find out tomorrow but for sure this was a very positive day for us and hopefully we show something similar out there tomorrow.”