Charles Leclerc gave up on the Championship battle with Max Verstappen as soon as he saw the latter drive at the Belgian GP.
Red Bull and Verstappen entered the second half of the season looking to extend their advantage over Ferrari in their fight for the Title. The Belgian GP was seen as a chance for Ferrari to bounce back because both Verstappen and Charles Leclerc were set to take engine penalties.
Verstappen qualified in P1 ahead of Leclerc in second but due to their penalties, they started P14 and P16 respectively. This meant that Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz started the Belgian GP on pole. On paper, it looked like the afternoon’s good fortunes had Ferrari’s name written all over it.
Leclerc was 80 points behind Verstappen heading into the race in Spa-Francorchamps. In spite of that, the Monegasque believed that he had a chance of overturning it if he started winning races.
However, Verstappen’s drive on race day in Belgium made Leclerc lose all hope in terms of fighting for the Title.
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Max Verstappen’s stunning P14 to P1 drive in Belgium
Verstappen started the 2022 Belgium GP from P14. However, within just five laps it was clear that the Dutchman was going to have a comfortable win. He breezed past everyone on track, and the RB18 looked much faster than every other car.
Sainz got off well in the beginning and built a huge lead at the front. Despite that, he could not hold Verstappen off and the 24-year-old took control of the race by leading in lap 12.
Leclerc ended up finishing the race P5 and that was the moment he gave up on fighting for the World Championship. The Ferrari driver revealed this in an interview with RacingNews365.
“I returned after the summer break with hope for the title,” he said. “But I saw the performance gap to Red Bull at Spa, and I knew it was going to be very difficult.”
Charles Leclerc hoping to finish the 2022 season strongly
Leclerc’s 2022 season went off to a great start. He won two out of the opening three races at a time when Red Bull and Verstappen were struggling with reliability issues. However, their roles reversed very soon and it was the Scuderia who began to deal with similar problems.
The Maranello-based outfit started showing signs of durability issues and their own strategy goof ups cost them a lot of points. On top of that, Leclerc himself mad multiple errors which saw him hand Verstappen race wins from commanding positions.
With just five races to go now, Verstappen is 109 points clear. The Red Bull driver will clinch his second consecutive Championship this weekend itself if he wins the Japanese GP with the fastest lap. Even if Leclerc finishes second, it won’t be enough to stop the Dutch driver’s moment of glory.
The Championship looks out of reach for Leclerc this season, but he would love to get a few more race wins under his belt before the season finishes.
