Vasseur takes a stand on contact between Leclerc and Verstappen in the Spanish GP

After coming close to victory in the Monaco GP no more than a week ago, Charles Leclerc had to settle for third place this time in Barcelona, but still secured a second consecutive podium — definitely a morale boost as the season progresses.

The Monegasque built his race around the decision he made in the final minutes of Q3 on Saturday, when he chose to abort his last flying lap in order to have an extra set of soft tyres available for Sunday and adopt a different strategy.

However, between the time lost overtaking his teammate during the first stint and the clearly superior pace of the leading trio, the Monegasque only managed to clinch a podium thanks to a stroke of luck, as the Safety Car's deployment on lap 55 suddenly dashed Max Verstappen’s hopes.

Right after the restart, Leclerc managed to overtake the Dutchman even before the braking zone into Turn 1, taking advantage of the mistake the latter made coming out of the final corner.

However, the cameras caught a slight contact between the two, prompting the stewards in Barcelona to investigate the incident. In the end, though, they opted for no further action against the Monegasque driver, allowing him to retain his third-place finish on the podium.

When asked about the incident during the post-race press conference — also attended by GP Blog — Frederic Vasseur chose to downplay the episode: ''I even didn't notice that there was an incident honestly''.