Disaster struck again for Charles Leclerc after he spun into Paul Ricard while leading the French Grand Prix.
Polesitter Leclerc made the perfect start, keeping his lead over title rival Max Verstappen.
From there, Verstappen quickly closed in on the Ferrari driver, although Leclerc did enough in that opening period to keep Verstappen at bay.
Red Bull pulled the trigger on lap 17 and went up against Verstappen trying to execute the cut, but as it turned out, this strategic ploy never got the chance to play out.
This is because Leclerc would lose the rear of his F1-75, spinning into the tire barrier and triggering the Safety Car. His race is over.
If it came down to stuck throttle again 😡#FrenchGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/7j2xOVEMck
— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) July 24, 2022
An angry Leclerc turned to the radio, thankfully unscathed, to let out a gut-wrenching scream, then hinted that the gas problem that had dogged him in the closing stages of the Austrian Grand Prix had returned.
Verstappen turned to the radio to ask if his rival was okay after the shunt.
“**** – is he okay?” Max asked.
“Yeah, I’m told it’s fine Max, thanks for the question,” was the response from the Red Bull pit wall.
The race restarted with Verstappen in the lead, while his 2021 title rival Lewis Hamilton qualified second.
Further trouble lay ahead for Ferrari, with Sainz handed a five-second penalty for dangerous clearance after the Ferrari crew sent him into Williams’ path.
Ferrari even got the penalty wrong early on, initially telling Sainz it was a five-second stoppage penalty before Sainz corrected his race engineer.
More to follow…
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