Charles Leclerc explains his antics in passing Max Verstappen in F1 Spanish GP, as he and Frederic Vasseur expands on strategy and issues.
Ferrari’s Leclerc played a strategic game by not undertaking a second run in qualifying in Q3 of F1 Spanish GP. This left him seventh but with extra set of new tyre at his disposable. He made the most of the start on Sunday to move up to sixth by clearing Andrea Kimi Antonelli initially.
He soon managed to clear George Russell as well to move up to fifth behind teammate Lewis Hamilton. After trying for couple of times, he couldn’t get through which forced Ferrari in a swap game, which was obliged by the Brit. But by then the Top 3 extracted a larger gap between third and fourth.
Many argued if Ferrari’s delay in team order did not help Leclerc in the long run. But team boss Vasseur didn’t think so. “I think that on that lap, Charles was two tenths slower or three tenths slower, and I’m not sure that with three tenths more or less, it would change something in the race,” he said.
Leclerc hung onto fourth until the safety car which gave him the opportunity to pounce on Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for third. The Dutchman was on the hard compound which hurt his grip level and a moment in the final corner allowed the Monegasque to be side-by-side him on the line.
The two had a minor brush but Leclerc hung on. There was a hearing but both were cleared of it, even though they agreed that it could have been disastrous. He was third but on the final lap he suffered of tyre degradation which allowed Russell to close in on him massively.
Leclerc didn’t have issues with the Verstappen clash and understood the Dutchman’s radio message. “I mean, from the moment where I knew that Max was on a Hard tyre, I was like, ‘OK, that’s not a great tyre to be on for the last five laps’, especially if there’s no saving or whatsoever,” said Leclerc. “So, I knew that it was a full attack for me and that there was an opportunity to finish on the podium.
“Max went with a lot of commitment in the last corner, lost the rear on exit, and then I was basically side by side, and I was very happy to take the third place. And then we touched on the pit straight. I mean, I probably would have been very vocal if it was the other way around as well, because you are fighting for third place.
“So, you are just trying everything to get that third place back, and I think he knew that on track it would be very difficult with the tyres he was on. So, yeah, I mean, honestly, I don’t have any particular feeling about it. There was nothing special. I overtook on the inside. He tried to squeeze me on the dirty side of the track, then I had the upper hand because I had more speed because of the mistake he had done.
“And then I was trying to take the slipstream of the McLaren, went a tiny bit to the left. He didn’t seem to want to move at all. And we touched a little bit, but there was nothing special. Looking back, the first Medium was really good. I think the other Medium wasn’t great. The last Medium wasn’t great. I was trying to manage as much as possible because I knew I had to do a bit of a longer stint, because all my competitors were going longer on the second stint to have a shorter third stint.
“So, I was just trying to manage those tyres. So, I had to compromise a little bit the last stint, but it’s not like I expected to be super quick. I just thought that for our situation, it was the better way to go, and I think today confirms it,” summed up Leclerc, who was carrying an issue in the second stint as Vasseur alluded to. The Frenchman didn’t wished to get into the details of it.
He wasn’t sure if Saturday’s strategy worked to their advantage, but was pleased with the result anyways. “We had a small issue also on the other car, but not about the oil, I don’t know where it’s coming from,” said Vasseur. “Honestly, it’s really difficult. First, it’s difficult to understand if yesterday, with one set more, we would have been a P3 or P4 or not.
“We had a decent pace on the first tenth, knowing that you have just one stint, and so you are a bit less open to the Bonsai. It means that perhaps we missed something yesterday, but on the other hand, we had three new sets today, and it was probably part of the fact that we were able to stay with McLaren at the beginning, and that we overtook the first two or three cars in front of us, and then the pace was OK.
“If you do this kind of bet, you can’t have only the positive side of the decision, you can’t only have the new tyres in the race and not the penalty in the qualification. Sometimes, for one tenth, you don’t lose position, and sometimes, for one tenth, you lose two or three positions, and that was the case yesterday. As for the clash, I even didn’t notice that there was an incident.
“Honestly, that with Sky, we tried to hold on to the steering wheel position on the straight and it was at zero. It’s not an incident. Now I can understand that they are upset after the last two or three laps of the race, but it’s nothing to do with Charles.”
Verstappen didn’t understand what happened either. “I don’t know what happened there, it was really odd,” he said. “The move was already done. He moved left which could have been a big one but it was just really weird, I don’t what happened. I thought I was going to have a puncture, because with the floor you cut the tyre.”
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-spanish-grand-prix-verstappen-snatches-p2-from-norris-at-turn-1-as-piastri-leads-on-the-race-start.1833732474981520181
Here’s race re-start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-spanish-grand-prix-verstappen-loses-out-to-leclerc-on-the-safety-car-restart.1833740283761479282
Here’s Charles Leclerc pass on George Russell: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-spanish-grand-prix-leclerc-snatches-p5-from-russell-on-lap-1.1833734234096694974
Here’s Red Bull, Mercedes on Spanish GP clash
Here’s how F1 Spanish GP panned out
