Charles Leclerc believes his car is as quick as Max Verstappen and he believes he can chase down Red Bull at the Austrian GP.
Max Verstappen claimed a comfortable victory in the 2022 Austrian GP’s Sprint race. The Dutchman cruised to the finish line ahead of the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
The 2021 World Champion qualified P1 for the Saturday sprint race at the Red Bull Ring. But he did not face any competition from the Ferrari duo who were caught up in their own duel.
Both Leclerc and Sainz were caught up in a competition between themselves. The two took lunges at each other throughout the initial part of the race. Sainz briefly overtook Leclerc for P2 at the start until the Monagesque clawed his way back.
This on-track took a heavy toll on Sainz and Leclerc’s tyres. With the two suffering minor lockups and constantly battling with each other, Verstappen got a massive lead allowing him to win the race with no hassle.
In his post-race radio, Charles was congratulated by race engineer Xavier Pedros. Charles confirmed that he can catch up. But the team must focus on catching up with Red Bull than competing with each other
Leclerc said, “Yeah yeah, we are quick. We can get them tomorrow. We just need to stay calm in the first part of the race and not fight. Because I was saving in the first few laps.”
Later Team Principal Mattia Binotto congratulated Charles and affirmed him saying “The pace is there. Tomorrow is the race.” To which Charles replied with optimism, “It’s tomorrow that counts.”
Also Read: Ferrari fans bash Mattia Binotto for not making Charles Leclerc number one driver
Can Charles Leclerc beat Max Verstappen?
Max Verstappen claimed a maximum of 8 points for finishing P1. This allows the Dutchman to increase his lead in the Championship by 38 points. While Ferrari now trails Red Bull by 62 points ahead of the Austrian GP.
Verstappen lead the race comfortably and eventually won by 1.6 seconds. But Charles Leclerc began to close in at the very end. This means the Ferrari can keep up with Max’s pace in the long run. Especially across 71 laps of the main race.
Leclerc believes that had the two Ferrari drivers not fuelled and saved their tyres, they could have overtaken the Dutchman. But there is no room for in-team drama like they witnessed today.
Leclerc stated in the post-race interview “ I think tomorrow is going to be a long race and tyre management will be quite a bit more important compared to today so probably tomorrow, we cannot afford to do what we did today.”
He added “We lost a little bit of time but again when Max had the gap, he also managed his pace, so we’ll never know… but I felt like we were strong towards the end – probably stronger than at the beginning. Whether it [would have been] enough I really don’t know.”
Also Read: Toto Wolff makes fierce statement towards Max Verstappen’s fans
