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Nico Hulkenberg believes that Charles Leclerc was too aggressive during his failed recovery drive during the Monaco Grand Prix.
Leclerc's first home race driving a Ferrari came to an early end, after a disappointing qualifying blunder by the Scuderia meant that the Monegasque started from down in 15th position.
He managed to find his way past both Lando Norris and then Romain Grosjean, with the latter on the inside of Rascasse during the opening laps of the race.
Leclerc made the same move on Nico Hulkenberg at Rascasse, but misjudged the move and clipped the inside barrier, which punctured his rear tyre. This in turn destroyed the floor of his SF19 as it disintegrated, which led to the team retiring the car.
The move also caused damage to Nico Hulkenberg's RS19, which compromised the German's pace during the race.
“Charles was too aggressive. He came quite far back and I didn’t leave much of a gap anyway,” Hulkenberg told reporters after finishing P14.
“Then I saw that he launched and I tried to play fair. I opened the steering and tried to leave him some space and let us both live. He spun on his own axis and that kissed my car.
“I didn’t hit the wall but it sliced my rear tyre open and that’s where it all went too wrong. He was just too ambitious.
“My race engineer told me that he had passed Grosjean the lap before, and I could sense his move coming. But you have to weigh up your chances as a driver and know when it’s a real opportunity or not.
"I think he was impatient today, frustrated from yesterday and he wanted to get through the field. That’s Monaco, it doesn’t work like that.”
Leclerc's fun ended in disaster
Leclerc however said the start of his race was 'fun', but agreed it ended in 'disaster'.
“It was very difficult. As I said before the race, I had to take a lot of risks, which we did,” he explained.
"It was fun at the beginning but unfortunately it ended in disaster. But that’s the problem with Monaco when you are starting 15th, which is not our real pace position. It was difficult to come back from today.”
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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Replies (7)
Login to replyf1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
I agree... there was no need to be so aggressive
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
It was a surprisingly immature stint from him. I don't expect him to make this a tradition.
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
Yep, kind of a rookie move. Wanted to make up places in front of his home crowd or die trying. Unfortunately that approach doesn't take into account all the collateral damage it causes.
boudy
Posts: 1,168
For those who think that Leclerc is close to Verstappen level this shows that Verstappen is way ahead in ability. Ferrari should be getting Hamilton or Verstappen in their team asap.
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
You mean the guy who intentionally caused a collision in the pit lane and got 2 penalty points who routinely crashes into his opponents when it looks like he is going to lose a position? Yeah, no.
cricho
Posts: 80
You could just see the crash coming, too desperate, too aggressive in his racing. I'm sure he learned a lot from this one, so did his little team....
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
Yep, just like you could see VER's collisions coming.