'We Can Win The Race With Lewis': Charles Leclerc Takes Sarcastic Dig At Hamilton
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc clashed with his engineer over tire strategy at the Emilia Romagna GP, prioritising Lewis Hamilton, leading to a missed pit window and affecting his race.
Ferrari's star driver Charles Leclerc, who finished on the podium at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last month, was seen taking a massive dig at his race engineer during the Emilia Romagna GP on Sunday, May 18, as they contemplated prioritising Lewis Hamilton over him.
In lap 46 of the Imola GP, Leclerc was in P4 and was maintaining his time after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli pulled off the track and a safety car was deployed.
Most drivers look to change their car tires during this time and Leclerc was discussing similar strategies with his race engineer Xavi before certain statements from the latter infuriated him.
Asking if he can pit to change tires, Leclerc was told that Hamilton doesn't want to pit. 'I don't care, I don't care. We're speaking about ourselves," Leclerc said on the team radio.
The mess didn't end there. When Leclerc decided to pit, he saw Hamilton entering the pits before him and intent on not waiting behind the latter to change tires, he kept running on the old ones.
By the time Leclerc took a round around the track, the pit window closed. As a result, he had to stay with the hard tires he got on Lap 32. Hamilton, on the other hand, dropped from P3 to P7, but with advantageous soft tires.
'Yeah, yeah, I think we can win the race with Lewis," Leclerc said.
Thanks to a superior tire advantage, the seven-time world champion was able to pass Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar, Alex Albon and Leclerc to finish the race in P4.
While the latter was unhappy with how things panned out for him at the Imola GP, Hamilton was cheerful.
'There's still work to do, especially over one lap, but if we can keep building on days like this, we'll be in the mix for podiums. Grazie mille tifosi: your support means the world, and I hope we made you proud today," Hamilton said.
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