“It was a damn disaster,” grumbled the Ferrari driver. In front of Leclerc were winner Sergio Perez (Red Bull), Ferrari colleague Carlos Sainz and world champion Max Verstappen (Red Bull). But the Scuderia practically beat itself.
After torrential rain that caused the start to be delayed by 70 minutes, Ferrari had brought leading Leclerc into the pits on lap 19 on a drying track for a switch to intermediates tires (good for changeable conditions). This proved to be superfluous, since shortly afterwards the field and the Ferraris switched to dry tires. As a result, Leclerc could no longer get past the leading trio in the narrow streets. “It hurts a lot because this is an important race for me. There was no communication before the tire change. I came in for the first stop and suddenly the intermediates were on it,” said Leclerc, gritting his teeth.
In the overall standings, he is now nine points behind leader Verstappen.
Source: Nachrichten
