It has been remarkably close between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr over their three seasons and 66 grands prix as team mates so far. The combined scoreline as it stands has Leclerc on 673 points to Sainz’s 610.5.
Over that time Leclerc has consistently held the upper hand in qualifying, winning the intra-term battle by the same 13-9 margin over the first two seasons, and nudging it up to 15-7 this year.
For the second time in three seasons, the pair swapped championship positions at the final round this year. Sainz was the beneficiary two years ago, rising from seventh to fifth at Leclerc’s expense in the finale. The roles were reversed this year, Sainz’s no-score at Yas Marina costing him what would have been his best championship finish to date, as he fell from fourth to seventh, Leclerc among those who gained.
When drivers are this close, small problems can tip the balance easily either way. Both can point to failures which prevented them from starting the grands prix in Qatar (Sainz) and Brazil (Leclerc). But the latter was probably more hard done by on the whole: a failure struck as he held third place in the season-opener and guaranteed him a grid penalty at the following round; later in Austin his car was disqualified for a technical infringement which his team mate’s was not checked for. That said, for cruellest misfortune of the year it is hard to top what happened to Sainz in Las Vegas.
Sainz earned the bragging rights as the only driver to win a grand prix in 2023 in anything other than a Red Bull RB19 – something Leclerc would certainly have given up his fifth place in the championship for. That came about as Sainz returned from the summer break in excellent form in an SF-23 which Ferrari had finally got their head around.
He took pole position at Monza and put up a strong fight against the Red Bulls – and, later, Leclerc – for the final podium position. In Singapore he took pole position and Leclerc, to his credit, played the team role to perfection to ensure Red Bull’s only Sunday defeat of 2023.
Next time out at Suzuka further tweaks to the Ferrari turned it more to Leclerc’s liking, and from then on he was never headed by Sainz in qualifying for a grand prix. Leclerc might well have taken a win of his own at Las Vegas had Max Verstappen not profited from a Safety Car period ironically triggered by his own clash with George Russell.
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