Disastrous Error Due To Which Ferrari\’s Charles Leclerc Lost Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

The reigning world champ Max Verstappen brought Red Bull back into the championship battle after winning the wet-dry Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday. Verstappen won his second race of the season, finishing with a time of 1:32:07:986 and securing 26 valuable points. Meanwhile, Ferrari and Charles Leclerc had a tough race after losing the third position while trying to push too hard during the Scuderia\’s home race. Moreover, Leclerc\’s teammate Carloz Sainz was ruled out of the race in the first lap after the Spanish driver\’s car was tipped off into the gravel by McLearn\’s Daniel Ricciardo. 

Verstappen climbed back to the second spot in the F1 2022 rankings after his win in Imola. The Dutchman also reduced his deficit to Leclerc from 45 points to just 27 points. Although Ferrari\’s Leclerc pushed too hard in an attempt to pass Verstappen\’s teammate Sergio Perez after a late pit stop. The Monegasque driver lost control of his car at the Variante Alta chicane at the Imola racing circuit. Hence, the 24-year-old was forced to make another pit stop to change his tires and get a new front wing, resulting in him dropping to the ninth position. Leclerc tried real hard, but he only managed to recover to the sixth position at the end of the race at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. After the race, Charles Leclerc said that he was disappointed in himself for pushing too far in order to get ahead.

Charles Leclerc\’s Error Cost Him Seven Important Points

Ferarri had a frustrating start after losing their driver Carlos Sainz in the early stages of the races. Charles Leclerc appeared to be heading towards an acceptable third spot when he tried too hard but ended up falling behind. One simple mistake cost Leclerc a significant lead which he gained from Red Bull\’s reliability issues this season. The young Monegasque said that he wanted to give it all on that lap. But ended up giving too much and finished into the wall.

Charles added that instead of finishing third, Ferrari lost seven crucial points. This could prove to be very important towards the end of the season. The 24-year-old took full responsibility for his mistake and hoped to look back at what went wrong. Moreover, Charles revealed that his car jumped in a strange way. But, the Ferrari driver admitted that he tried to put too much speed and lost the car\’s control. 

Leclerc also acknowledged that Red Bull was stronger than Ferrari throughout the weekend. Charles feels that his team needs to understand that and react accordingly to do better. The Monegasque driver told, \”Third was the best we could do but we should have been third and I haven\’t been.\”

Verstappen Happy About Red Bull Securing First & Second Spot

On the other hand, Verstappen seemed to be in total control after converting his pole position. The Red Bull driver maintained his form from Saturday\’s sprint and got a lead at the first corner. All the drivers started on wet-weather tires due to the rain before the race. An offset in grip resulted in Leclerc slipping behind Perez and Norris from the second position. However, Leclerc crossed Norris during the eight-lap after a restart from the safety car procedure after Ricciardo and Sainz\’s collision. 

Meanwhile, Perez and Leclerc were in close competition with each other for the second spot. Perez took a pit stop on lap 18 to get dry tires. And Leclerc came in a lap later to ensure his lead. However, Perez came closer and passed ahead of Ferarri\’s car into the second chicane. He got in front of Leclerc and maintained the lead before Charles\’ desperate attempt led him to lose the third spot. However, Verstappen showed his A-game throughout the race and led before securing the win. Verstappen said that weather makes it tough to figure out how competitive a driver needs to be. However, he was happy about his team doing it well and securing the well-deserved first and second position in Emilia Romagna GP.