Charles Leclerc gives ‘full attack’ Max Verstappen verdict as stewards decision looms

Charles Leclerc insisted he was not to blame for the late incident with Max Verstappen during the Spanish Grand Prix.

Following the safety car restart, the two drivers touched as Leclerc moved past, leading to both drivers being called to the stewards.

Leclerc, who was a distant P4, suddenly found himself in podium contention when a safety car prompted Red Bull to pit Verstappen for hard tyres, his only remaining set. Ferrari also pitted Leclerc, who had soft tyres used for just one qualifying lap, giving him an advantage for the restart.

Verstappen had a big snap in Turn 14, which opened the door for Leclerc. As Leclerc passed, the pair made contact. While Verstappen insisted Leclerc had “rammed” into him, the Ferrari driver suggested Verstappen moved over.

“I probably would have been very vocal if it was the other way around,” Leclerc said. “Because you are fighting for the third place so [he was] just trying everything to get that third place back.

“And I think he knew that on track it would be very difficult with the tyres he was on.

“Honestly, I don’t have any particular feeling about it. There was nothing special. I overtook on the inside. He tried to squeeze me on the dirty side of the track.

“Then I had the upper hand because I had more speed because of the mistake he had done. And then I was trying to take the slipstream of the McLaren, went a tiny bit to the left, he didn’t seem to want to move at all. We touched a little bit, but there was nothing.”

Leclerc’s podium remains under threat as the stewards hear both sides, but he knew he had an opportunity when Verstappen switched to the hard tyre.

“From the moment when I knew that Max was on a hard tyre, I was like ‘okay, that’s that’s not a great tyre to be on for the last five laps’ especially if there’s no [battery] saving or whatsoever,” he explained.

“So I knew that it was a full attack for me and that there was an opportunity to finish on the podium. Max went with a lot of commitment in the last corner, lost the rear in the exit, and then I was basically side-by-side, and I was very happy to take the third place.”

If the result stands, it will be Leclerc’s second consecutive podium, a feat he had not achieved since 2024.