What went wrong with Charles Leclerc’s car in Baku? Why did the Ferrari driver have to retire his car?
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The 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix will be one to forget for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The 24 years old monegasque was on the pace throughout the practise sessions and come Saturday, he hooked it up around the technical street circuit of Baku and did a stellar lap to put himself on pole position. Starting first on the grid, Charles Leclerc had given himself a very good opportunity to claw back all the points that he lost out in the last few races to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
However, it was a completely different story on Sunday. Charles Leclerc and his teammate Carlos Sainz both suffered DNFs during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and neither of the Ferraris managed to finish the race. Ferrari’s bad luck started when Carlos Sainz suddenly stopped on lap 9 at turn 4 and the team later confirmed that it was an hydraulic issue.
The nightmare continued for Ferrari as soon as the drivers were on lap 20. Plumes of smoke were coming out from the engine of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and the championship contender had to immediately come in to the pits and retire the car. It was nothing but disappointment for the Tifosi.
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The Azerbaijan GP DNF was a huge blow to the championship hopes for Charles Leclerc
The team later revealed that it was an issue with the power unit. However they did not elaborate further about the issue.
“It hurts.“, Leclerc said when Sky Sports asked him about how he felt about the retirement. “We need to look into it so it doesn’t happen again. I don’t find the right words to describe. It’s really disappointing. We need to look into it.”
Leclerc took four pole positions in the last four races but did not manage to win any of them. Added to that, this result did not help Charles Leclerc at all as Max Verstappen took victory at the end of the 51 laps at the Baku City Circuit and made sure that he capitalised on Ferrari’s failures. This means that the current World Champion standings is being led by Max Verstappen with 150 points. Sergio Perez follows him with 129 points after he finished 2nd in Baku. Leclerc is third with 116 points.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)