Charles Leclerc finally seems to have kickstarted a race weekend well after he registered a fantastic lap during the Belgian Grand Prix qualifying session on Friday to claim pole position. While Max Verstappen’s lap time was quicker than that of the Monegasque, he will not start on pole due to a five-place grid penalty. And with Leclerc now having claimed pole position, he wants one of his fans to fulfill their promise. This is because a fan had taken to social media prior to the qualifying session and posted that they would run ‘naked‘ around the Spa Francorchamps circuit if Leclerc claimed pole.
On reading the fan’s post, Leclerc hilariously replied, “I believe that with the penalty, it counts for a pole. Good footing“. The Monegasque’s response seems to have resulted in the fan regretting their dare already as they reacted with a few emojis. And it seems that other social media users also enjoyed the reaction between Leclerc and one of his fans.
Je crois qu’avec la pénalité, ça compte pour une pole… Bon footing 🙂
— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) July 28, 2023
F1 fans react to Leclerc’s “evil” response to a fan’s dare
Some F1 fans such as Ro explained how Charles Leclerc often becomes a menace both on the race track and off it when he is happy with the car.
When Charles is happy with the car he truly becomes a menace both on and off track 😌 https://t.co/iRfbBIlF72
— Ro (@racingwithro) July 28, 2023
Meanwhile, some other fans referred to the Monegasque as “evil” because of the emoji he used in his reply.
the emoji he’s evil https://t.co/tu7mESs17B
— leileileileilei SEBSEBSEB (@vttel5) July 28, 2023
And then there are some other fans such as Rae who prayed for times when Leclerc would be “funny” again.
he’s being funny on twitter again i used to pray for times like this https://t.co/ERBZy8mVgC
— rae (@M0NACOS) July 28, 2023
Charles Leclerc explains his chances of winning the Belgian GP
Even though Charles Leclerc is delighted with the progress he and Ferrari have made ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, he is not confident of keeping the two Red Bulls behind him. The Monegasque believes that his side need to be realistic, and the reality is that they are still not strong as Red Bull.
“I don’t think so, Red Bull are too quick. Even if Max has a [five-place] penalty, I expect him to catch up. We’ve got Checo [Perez] right next to us, which will be also very difficult to keep behind“, explained Leclerc (as quoted by f1.com) when asked about the same.
Even though the Monegasque does not believe that he can keep Verstappen and Perez behind him, he will still hope to hang on to the final podium spot. If Leclerc does manage to do so, he will be able to score some much-needed points for himself and the team.
