Charles Leclerc has urged the FIA to amend their rules after he believed Max Verstappen got an advantage by serving a five-second penalty instead of giving the position back to him. Leclerc’s remarks come after Verstappen pushed the Ferrari driver wide into turn 1 and had all four wheels off the track himself while overtaking.
When asked about the same, Leclerc said as per RaceFans, “I just think that in those kind of situations, it would be better for the FIA to ask to give the place back because I think there’s quite a bit of an advantage to take care of tires when you have free air“. Verstappen and Leclerc started the race side by side after Carlos Sainz’s 10-place grid penalty dropped the Spaniard from second to twelfth.
Even though the Dutchman perhaps may have benefited because of serving the penalty instead of giving the place back to Leclerc, it was the safety car that cost the Monegasque driver. By the end of the first pit stops, Leclerc had a decent advantage over Verstappen but it was all taken away when the safety car came out.
Moreover, Verstappen also had fresher tires to attack Leclerc towards the end of the race. The Dutchman eventually crossed the line two seconds clear of Leclerc to take another victory in 2023. After the race, Verstappen pleaded his innocence by stating that he had no intention to put the Monegasque wide the way he did in turn 1 of the first lap.
Max Verstappen pleads his innocence for his incident with Charles Lcelerc
After the race, Max Verstappen stated that he went wide in turn 1 due to the presence of inadequate grip. However, he agreed that he deserved the penalty.
Verstappen said, “As soon as you’re a bit off-line here it’s super-low grip and that’s what happened. I braked and there was no grip. I didn’t mean to push Charles off the track, but I couldn’t slow down, I just kept sliding on four wheels, wide. So that’s why we had to go wide.”
All in all, Las Vegas witnessed another Max Verstappen masterclass. With his latest win, the Dutchman took his win tally to 18 this season and 53 overall victories. This was also interestingly the twelfth consecutive time when Leclerc failed to convert his pole position into a win.
