Windsor pinpoints key Imola moment: "A classic Leclerc mistake"

Charles Leclerc could not have caught up with Max Verstappen during the race in Imola, but in pursuit of Sergio Perez, the Monegasque made a grave mistake. Peter Windsor points to the out laps after the second tyre change as the key moment in the race.

Out laps from Verstappen, Leclerc and Perez

Verstappen led the race by a wide margin. Far behind him were teammate Perez and rival Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver managed to stay close to the Red Bull driver on the drying track, but could not pass him. The Italian team decided to bring Leclerc in for the red soft tyre, in order to also push Red Bull into a situation where they did have to react. It seemed as if the undercut on Perez succeeded, but on the same lap that Perez had made his stop, he also took P2 back from the Ferrari driver. Then Leclerc made a gross mistake, losing his podium spot.

Windsor analyzes the race in a YouTube video and points to the out laps of Leclerc, Perez and Verstappen after the tyre changes as the key moment in the race. Leclerc drove a 1:19.2 in his out lap and recorded a time of 1:18.8 on the lap after. Perez did it a lot faster and his first fast lap was a 1:18.9. Windsor: "Max Verstappen, interestingly enough, drove a 1:21.1 as his second lap. That to me is an indication that he was still feeling the new tires and maybe had a moment." On the same lap of Verstappen, Leclerc hit the wet kerb and spun.

Classic Leclerc mistake

Windsor compares the two title rivals, "That's a moment where you could say Charles was a bit crazy and Verstappen was the absolute driver in control." Verstappen had a good margin on Leclerc and his teammate was also between them, so the Dutchman could afford to take his time. Windsor concludes, "He [Leclerc] doesn't often make mistakes like this in the race, but it's a classic Leclerc mistake. He usually tends to use a lot of the Kerbstone."

In the cooldown room after the race, we saw footage of Verstappen and Lando Norris watching their rival's crash. The two chuckled and Norris went on to say that he had not gone over the kerb once in the Variante Alta during the race.