"I f***** it up," admits Leclerc

16/11/2020
NEWS STORY

As the world held its breath while Lewis Hamilton began his final lap, radio chatter warning of rain about to hit at Turn 8, around thirty seconds further back Charles Leclerc was all over the rear of Sergio Perez, looking to make a late move on the Mexican for second.

The Racing Point driver ran wide in Turn 9, and Leclerc didn't wait for a formal invitation, passing the Mexican to claim second.

However, the Monegasque subsequently locked-up under braking for Turn 12, and not only allowed Perez to retake the position, but Ferrari teammate, Sebastian Vettel to slip through also.

"I did a s*** job," admitted the youngster over the radio. "I am so sorry to the whole team, I am f***** stupid."

Talking to reporters at race end, neither his mood or frustration with himself had eased.

"Unfortunately in the last corner, nothing to say, in the last three corners. In the end, the end result counts. I was good for one part of the race but s*** when it matters and that's it. Fourth. I'm so disappointed."

"In Turn 9 we were very competitive and Sergio on that lap did a mistake so in Turn 10," he said a couple of hours later, having calmed down, "I tried to go round the outside but the grip was very poor. The Racing Point with the slipstream is very quick on the straight, so he managed to be on the right side and I locked up at the end.

"To be honest looking at the data I didn't do anything crazy, the same braking point and same pressure but obviously it was more wet on the inside so it was completely my mistake and I should have anticipated that.

"I went straight, it was actually very difficult to make the corner anyway which I fortunately did.

"Now that I've calmed down, congratulations to Seb, he deserves it," he added. "It's not been a good year for him. Even if I'm so p***** off with myself, he's done a great job and I hope he will enjoy it."

Check out our Sunday gallery from Istanbul, here.

Article from Pitpass (http://www.pitpass.com):

Published: 16/11/2020
Copyright © Pitpass 2002 - 2024. All rights reserved.