Charles Leclerc Looks Back on Failed Max Verstappen Pursuit Which Cost Him in United States GP Sprint

Charles Leclerc started the United States GP Sprint from P2 on the grid. On the opening lap, he was looking to overtake pole sitter Max Verstappen but failed to do so. That ended up costing him heavily and as reported by Race Express, he looks back on where things went wrong for him, and how he can improve throughout the rest of the weekend.

Verstappen missed out on the pole position for Sunday’s main race after his lap time got deleted due to track limit infringements. However, ahead of the sprint race, he managed to take P1 in the shootout. Leclerc, who was in P2 to Verstappen’s right, was banking on a good start to get the better of the Dutchman when the lights went out.

Unfortunately, Verstappen had things under control and ran Leclerc wide, just as much as he needed to. Consequently, the Monegasque driver lost out on P2 too to Lewis Hamilton.

Charles Leclerc reveals what went wrong with Max Verstappen pursuit

After the Sprint race, Leclerc spoke to David Coulthard about his failed pursuit of Verstappen. The Ferrari driver revealed that he spotted a gap, but Verstappen took care of it well. Additionally, he shed light on Mercedes’ strong pace.

“There was a hole and I tried to catch up with Max,” he said as quoted by Race Express. “It was tight and I lost my place to Lewis. Mercedes was a little faster today than we were. We need to find out why.”

Charles 🗣 “We have quite a lot of data available for analysis, as we ran our two cars on different strategies, which helped us to gain an insight into the behaviour of the Soft compound.”@Charles_Leclerc, @CarlosSainz55 and Fred’s words on today’s Sprint Race #USGP 🇺🇸

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) October 22, 2023

Ahead of the race, Leclerc wants Ferrari to figure out what they can do to finish ahead of Mercedes in the race. His teammate Carlos Sainz too, struggled out on track, but that was because he was on a different strategy.

Leclerc wants himself and Carlos Sainz to finish ahead of Mercedes

With the drivers’ and constructors” titles already sealed in favor of Verstappen and Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes have their sights focused on P2. Ferrari is currently 28 points behind Mercedes, and with five races to go, snatching second place does not seem like a monumental task.

However, if Mercedes do end up outperforming the Maranell0-based outfit, then things could become very difficult for Sainz and Leclerc. They will be looking to maximize every chance they get, starting with Austin on Sunday.

Both Sainz and Leclerc will be looking to finish ahead of the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.