Former world champion sees exciting battle: 'Leclerc is hard to beat'

This season everything seems to indicate that Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen will fight it out to become the best driver of 2022. After four races the Monegasque of Ferrari has the best cards, but the reigning world champion does not let himself be deterred after two DNFs. With two victories in Imola, he managed to narrow the gap to Leclerc.

Former F1 World Champion Jenson Button sees that the Dutchman is going all out to put pressure on the Ferrari driver. Yet Leclerc is holding firm and does not yet seem to be breaking under the pressure of the Red Bull Racing driver. In Imola, Leclerc made only his first real mistake of the season, losing control of his car while hunting for second place.

Verstappen only able to challenge Leclerc

In the end, he had to settle for sixth place, which allowed him to somewhat limit the damage on Red Bull. Button therefore currently still sees Leclerc as the favourite for the title, but he is also taking into account the advance of Verstappen, he explained in a conversation with Total-Motorsport.

"He’s really strong and I think in a car like that, which is very, very competitive, it’s difficult to beat but if anyone can, it’ll be Max." The new rules have allowed Ferrari to make the leap toward the top, while Mercedes has fallen way back. According to Button, this is proof that the new rules are working. "It’s a fun season so far, I like the new regulation changes," he said.