Mark Hughes on why Charles Leclerc missed out on victory

When on the 25th lap of the Las Vegas Grand Prix there was contact between the cars of Max Verstappen and George Russell during the battle for 4th position, and carbon fragments flew in different directions, it could initially be assumed that this was to the advantage belonged to Charles Leclerc.

At the time, the Ferrari driver, who started from pole, was running second after a pit stop he had made four laps earlier and was in pursuit of Sergio Perez. But as further developments showed, it turned out to be exactly the opposite. This is how Mark Hughes, an expert from the British publication The Race, writes about it.

Ironically, the incident between Russell and Verstappen brought Max a lot of luck. It can be said that after losing part of the front wing end plate as a result, he gained much more: the safety car came out so that the marshals could clear the debris from the track, and the three-time world champion immediately went to a pit stop for a new set of hard tires.

Verstappen, like most drivers, started on Medium tires, but when he attacked Leclerc in Turn 1 he acted too aggressively, for which he was given a 5-second penalty and turned off during a pit stop on lap 16, when he switched to rubber Hard. He then returned to the track in 10th and the Red Bull car worked more efficiently on hard tires.

“These tires are more durable,” Max explained after the finish. “The right front wheel of the Medium set was worn, I don’t know why, because everything was fine on Friday.”

But he completed a long series of laps in the second practice session in a car whose rear wing was at a higher angle of attack, and before qualifying Red Bull decided to reduce it. They did not do this on Sergio Perez’s RB19.

In addition, Verstappen’s Medium tires were running much lighter in practice than at the start of the race with a full tank of fuel and Max had to attack much more aggressively when trying to pull away from Leclerc to avoid using DRS.

In general, Verstappen drove the second and third parts of the race on hard tires. But after the first pit stop he was well behind Leclerc, who soon changed tires, also switching to Hard, and at that point neither of them planned to visit the pits a second time.

Between Verstappen and Leclerc were Fernando Alonso, George Russell and Carlos Sainz. Alonso Max quickly took the lead because the Spaniard had previously tried in vain to hold off Russell, the battery in his Aston Martin was empty and he could offer no real resistance.

Dealing with the Mercedes driver would have been more difficult, and it remains to be seen how Sainz would have acted when Verstappen overtook him, but everything changed when George failed to notice that Max had run into the attack on lap 25. …

So the safety car came out and stayed on the track for three laps, during the first lap Verstappen returned to the pits and was given a second set of fresh hard tires.

At that moment, Leclerc and his team did not know how best to proceed, whether to make a pit stop or not, and decided not to take any risks, but to reach the finish on this set of tires. If Charles had gone to the pits, he would most likely have returned in third place, and if he had stayed on the track, he would have become the leader, and Ferrari preferred this option.

It is now clear that this was not the best decision, as Verstappen gained an advantage through fresher tyres, and with a safety car on track and the fight temporarily neutralised, his lead over Leclerc was significantly reduced.

Charles had a nice finish at the end of the race: on the 32nd lap Perez was ahead of him thanks to DRS, but two laps later Leclerc carried out a successful counter-attack. Let us remind you that the rear wing of the Mexican’s car was turned at a greater angle, but that is not the only reason. Sergio deliberately let Leclerc pass, giving him the opportunity to use DRS to make it more difficult for Verstappen, who was driving behind Charles, to overtake the Monegasque. This was reminiscent of the end of the Singapore Grand Prix, when Carlos Sainz in a similar situation allowed Lando Norris to drive closer and he defended himself more effectively against Mercedes attacks because he could also use DRS.

But when Leclerc took the lead, nothing stopped Verstappen from overtaking first his teammate, whose car was clearly slower on the straights, and then Charles, whose tires had still completed five laps.

Leclerc locked the brakes before Turn 14 and was overtaken again by Perez on lap 43, but Charles did not give up and regained second position on the final lap by making very judicious use of the battery. But if Ferrari had decided to take a chance 25 laps earlier, he might have crossed the finish line first.