“Shit happens,” Max Verstappen symphatic of Charles Leclerc’s misfortunes in Baku
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Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen
When the 2022 Formula 1 season started off with the opening race in Bahrain, everyone was awestruck to see the Scuderia Ferrari come out with their formidable Ferrari F1-75 that soared to victory when Red Bull was experiencing reliability issues and Mercedes’ W13 was simply too slow. The Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was tauted as the early favorite to win this year’s Championship title as Max Verstappen could not even finish his race in Bahrain. But now that we are eight races into the F1 2022 season, things have taken a turn for the better for Red Bull Racing.
In the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc qualified in the first spot and he has vowed after his Monaco GP P4 finish that he would fight to retain his leading position in the Main Race on Friday. But unfortunately for the Monegasque, Red Bull racer Sergio Perez overtook him in the first lap itself and he soon found himself in the third place as Max Verstappen went past him as well.
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Charles Leclerc‘s woes did not end there as the racers’ F1-75 was found to be emitting smoke while he was running a lap during the middle of the race. He had to retire from the Azerbaijan GP and go into the pits because of some Ferrari power unit issue. This marked the end of his Baku campaign. Now, Azerbaijan GP winner Max Verstappen has reacted to Charles’ retirement in the post-race interview.
Max Verstappen says Charles Leclerc’s team has to make sure his upsetting retirement does not happen again
On Sunday, as the Main Race kicked off in Baku, Charles Leclerc lost his leading position in the Grand Prix to Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who has recently won the Monaco Grand Prix two weeks ago. Then, Charles was overtaken by Max Verstappen, who is his Championship rival for this year. As he was running in the third position, he endured some power unit issues, due to which he had to retire from the race.
Charles Leclerc was 9 points behind current World Championship leader Max Verstappen going into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. And because of his upsetting retirement, he is now 34 points behind the reigning F1 Champion. And to add to Charles’ disappointment, Sergio Perez, who was 6 points behind Charles Leclerc in the points table, is now leading him by a gap of 12 points.
Reacting to Charles’ withdrawal from the race, Max Verstappen said, “Shit happens. It happened to me too and is part of racing. After that, it is important as a team to ensure that it does not happen again.” Of course, he is referring to his retirement from the initial races of this year and how Red Bull has given him a better car that can reliably win races now.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)