Through the first quarter of the 2022 season, Charles Leclerc enjoyed one of the strongest starts to a Formula 1 campaign a Ferrari driver has had in the last decade.
As Leclerc began the 27th lap of the Spanish Grand Prix in late May, he was already sitting on a 19 point lead over Max Verstappen and would have felt confident of growing that advantage by at least another seven points by the chequered flag. Moments later, his turbo failed. Instead, it was Verstappen who left Barcelona with a six-point lead.
The five-race stretch between Spain and Silverstone which followed was surely the most agonising sequence of races in Leclerc’s F1 career. At the end of each race, the two words that Leclerc would regularly use to sum up how he felt at the end of the weekend were “frustrated” and “disappointed”.
But at the end of Saturday’s sprint race at the Red Bull Ring, where Verstappen securing the number one spot yet again, Leclerc’s demeanour on the radio was that of a driver who knew it was all to play for on Sunday.
“You’ve done a good job,” his race engineer Xavier Marco Padros told him after crossing the line.
“Yeah, we have,” Leclerc replied, calmly. “We can get them tomorrow.”
With Saturday’s sprint race producing the same top three starters that Friday’s qualifying session had, Leclerc had a whole evening on which to work out how to improve his getaway off the line on Sunday, after team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr had beaten him off the line the first time around. With everyone in the top ten starting on medium tyres, it would be another straight fight on the opening lap to determine which of those at the front would emerge with the lead.
As the lights went out for the second time in the weekend, Leclerc got a better launch than he did the first time on Saturday. Unfortunately, so too did Verstappen. Kissing the turn one apex for the first time, the Red Bull was one-and-a-half car lengths in front of the Ferrari, Verstappen having successfully held his lead.
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Behind, however, George Russell was poking his nose up the inside of Sainz and the pair ran side-by-side through the corner, Sainz making liberal use of the run-off to stay alongside the Mercedes as the field charged through the coral-coloured haze and up the hill to turn three.
Sainz managed to pull ahead of Russell…
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