Leclerc: "Gasly told me that I had to win for Hubert"

Charles Leclerc won the Belgian Grand Prix last year after Anthoine Hubert had crashed earlier that weekend. The Ferrari driver remembers that Pierre Gasly told him before the start of the race that he had to win for the deceased Frenchman, which was an emotional moment.

"I remember talking to Pierre about it," says Leclerc to Motorsport-Total.com about the moment in question. "He, Esteban [Ocon], Anthoine and I were all good friends and grew up together. Pierre told me that I had to win for Anthoine. It's all that I wanted. It was something special."

This weekend young Monegask will not compete for the victory. The SF1000 is simply not competitive enough. Especially in sectors one and three Leclerc expects to lose a lot of ground. These sectors have a lot of long straights and that's something the Ferrari engine doesn't excel in. "We are going to suffer a lot. In the second sector, however, you can make up for quite a bit", he hopes.

Leclerc didn't unbuckled his seat belt

During the Spanish Grand Prix Leclerc recorded a DNF. The cause of this was a problem with the engine and a loose seatbelt. At Spa-Francorchamps the Ferrari driver explains why he decided to loosen his belt. "I unbuckled myself once I knew that there was a problem with the engine. I didn’t think I would go again. Then I put them on the way to go again on the track. I did one slow lap, especially to know whether the engine was working properly again or not, and then on the second lap when I started to push I realised that one of the four buckles that we have as a seat belt was not on.” Leclerc then immediately returned to his team in the pits.