Charles Leclerc believes that any driver in Max Verstappen’s position at the Mexican Grand Prix ‘must just have done the same’. The Dutchman picked up two 10-second time penalties for dangerous lunges on title rival Lando Norris.
Verstappen finds himself in a unique position, leading the World Championship with a handful of races remaining, but watching on helplessly as his title rival hones in with much faster machinery. The reigning champion is winless since the Spanish Grand Prix back in June.
The gulf in class between Red Bull and McLaren is such that Verstappen has been forced to get creative with the tactics used to take points away from Norris. In Mexico, this came in the form of two audacious moves in the space of a single lap.
Verstappen has been heavily criticized in the paddock for his driving standards, but Leclerc is not convinced that the detractions levied at the Red Bull driver have been totally fair. “The second move on Lando, I think this is over the limit,” he said.
“I also think that whoever [you put] in his position might just do the same, because we are fighting for a world title and I think it would be very false to say that drivers will do something different today.”
He then continued: “He feels that the car that he has is not as good as the beginning of the season. He feels that McLaren probably [has] really good momentum at the moment and they are all fighting for the drivers’ title.
“So it’s hard. Sometimes he will go over the limit, like he did in Mexico. But again, they are fighting for a world title. So in my opinion it’s understandable. Then it’s up to the FIA to control that and obviously put limits to what is possible or not. And on that, we are trying to work to make it the best possible.”
While Leclerc was willing to give Verstappen the benefit of the doubt, some of his fellow competitors were less forgiving. George Russell, for one, was clear in his stance against the Dutchman’s aggressive moves.
Ahead of the race in Brazil, he protested: It was nice to have the battle and it’s always good when you fight with Lewis because it’s hard and fair. At the moment you’re seeing a number of manoeuvres that are just…
“It’s getting beyond entertaining or beyond sporting, it’s just almost unfair to a point now.” He went on to add: “You can argue the first one was maybe 60-40. The last one, I’ve not seen anything like that since probably Brazil [in 2021].”
Belgium
