The Australian GP of Charles Leclerc. The pilot of Ferrari, winner last season a Melbourne, ended up in the gravel at turn 3 and was unable to restart. After his exit, the safety car came in and he remained on the track for 4 laps.
Leclerc out, what happened
Leclerc started from seventh position on the starting grid. At the start there was an immediate twist with the two Mercedes of Russell e Hamilton who have surpassed Red Bull’s Verstappen, who started from pole position. It started off well too Sainz with the other Ferrari, who moved into fourth position overtaking Alonso. The starting point is also good Leclercwhich in turn 3 tried to overtake the Aston Martin’s Stroll who preceded him: in an attempt to pass him to the outside, the Monegasque touched Stroll’s front left with his right rear tyre, the contact was slight but enough to make the Ferrari spin, which ended up in the gravel thus closing his race. A really not very positive start to the season for Leclerc, who had been forced to retire at his debut in Bahrain and had finished the Saudi Arabian GP in seventh place.
Leclerc: “Great frustration”
Leclerc has his say on the incident: “In turn 3 there was space outside Stroll, unfortunately Alonso had to brake because he had cars in front, Stroll got between me and Alonso and there was contact. Let me be clear , it’s not Lance’s fault. The frustration is big, everything went wrong in these first three grands prix. The result is that we have very few points, it is true that the season is long but now we have to recover. Sainz? What happened in qualifying it was the result of a misunderstanding, there’s no need to go further. Let’s hope he can make a comeback”.