Charles Leclerc labels Carlos Sainz’s Belgian GP DNF a ‘shame’

Leclerc finished P3 behind Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen

Charles Leclerc labels Carlos Sainz’s Belgian GP DNF a ‘shame’

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz (Credits: Total Motorsports.Com)

Charles Leclerc grabbed his third podium of the season today in Belgium by finishing P3. While the Frenchman had a good run, his teammate Carlos Sainz was not very lucky. Sainz collided with Oscar Piastri at the start of the race on Turn One, which resulted in Piastri retiring in lap two and Sainz later on in the race in lap 25.

In his post-race interview, Charles Leclerc expressed that he was happy with the pace his car provided over the weekend. Although it was insufficient to compete with the Red Bulls, Leclerc said what happened with Sainz was shameful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWvt8xlMDfk

“We’ve had quite a positive weekend in terms of pace. It went good on my side. A shame for Carlos as we had good pace, but if you look at Red Bull – they are quite far ahead still in terms of degradation. The pace was there to keep Lewis behind,” Leclerc said after the race

FS Video

After their collision, Ferrari reported that Sainz had a five percent loss in aerodynamic stability. Despite this, the Spaniard tried to continue his race but ultimately was forced to retire in Lap 25.

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McLaren’s Oscar Piastri takes a dig at Carlos Sainz for early race incident

Oscar Piastri
Oscar Piastri (Credits: PlanetF1)

Oscar Piastri saw an upsetting end to an otherwise phenomenal race weekend in Belgium after an early clash with Carlos Sainz. The Australian rookie came in at second position in the sprint and had a decent starting position of P5 in today’s race.

After his retirement, Piastri was asked about his thoughts about the FIA not investigating the incident. He believes that he and Sainz could have handled the situation differently, with both drivers not having many options.

“I got a good start and got my nose alongside, and then when we got to the braking zone. Carlos moves a bit to the right and locked up and I also had to try avoid that a bit… I think we both could have done things a bit differently,” said Piastri.

When asked how he felt all the other cars passing him just after the collision, Piastri said, “Yeah, it wasn’t fun. That’s for sure…I’ll look back over it more and see if there was more I could have done but it’s just a shame that we’re standing here and not still on track.”

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