Did Verstappen try to help Leclerc win?

11:37, 26 May

bySavannah Lenz

Peter Windsor believes that Max Verstappen held up the race to help Charles Leclerc win the Monaco Grand Prix. He reviewed the race on his YouTube channel afterwards.

Windsor: Verstappen tried to assist Leclerc to victory

Verstappen was leading the race after both Norris and Leclerc pitted for the second time. While he was in the lead, Windsor points out that Verstappen was going at least a second slower than Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Windsor said, "It was quite funny because when Lando caught him, which he did quite easily on newer tyres, Max then just drove around in the low 16s, high 15s, and all Lando could do was drop away a little bit so he didn't damage his tyres too much."

"It was quite obvious that what Max was doing was just trying to drive as slowly as he possibly could without Lando passing him, so that he gave Max more opportunity for Charles Leclerc to win the race."

Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.

He continued, "Charles, then sitting on Lando's tail, they're both sort of a second off their own pace. But of course, there's nothing he can do; he's just waiting for Lando to make a mistake, if any."

Leclerc did say that Norris was making a few mistakes but Windsor noted that Norris was going slow because of Verstappen.

"So Max was doing I imagine all he could to try and give Charles to win that race, not necessarily to help Charles and be anti-Lewis but in terms of the championship it would be better obviously his main rivals are going to be the McLaren drivers and not Charles, that's what he was thinking."

"It was quite clever thinking by Max, but it didn't pay off in the end. And of course, staying out as long as he did, I suppose you could say there was more chance he was going to get the benefit of maybe a safety car or a VSC. But that didn't happen either. Everyone was going so slowly that nobody really made any mistakes."

This article was written in collaboration with Nicole Mulder.