01/06/2025 17:25
Charles Leclerc has given his perspective on the contact he made
with Max Verstappen at the safety car restart in Spain. The
Barcelona race was neutralised in the final stages when Kimi
Antonelli came to a halt in the gravel with a power unit failure.
Verstappen pitted for fresh tyres for the restart, but only had the
hard tyres available for the run to flag, which offered little grip
when the race resumed. The Dutchman had a huge sideways moment
coming out of the final corner, allowing Leclerc to draw alongside
as they ran towards the first corner. Verstappen's front tyre made
contact with Leclerc's car as they battled for position - with
Leclerc suggesting both were equally to blame for the clash. "It
was a battle for the track position to get the slipstream of the
guys in front," Leclerc said. "Max wanted to bring me towards the
inside, where there's all the rubber. I didn't want to go too much
there, so I was trying to push him to the left. "There was a
little bit of contact, but fortunately for us, no consequences."
Leclerc ended the race in third place, marking his third F1 podium
of the season. "I'm really happy," Leclerc reflected. "Obviously,
yesterday, I sacrificed quite a bit qualifying in order to have
better tyres for today. "I didn't know whether it would pay off.
In the end, it did. I think in a normal race, P4 would have been
our position. "With a safety car, we got lucky and got a podium. So
I'm really happy with that."
