Kimi Antonelli took Charles Leclerc out of the Dutch Grand Prix when he obtained an tried overtake on the Ferrari all fallacious throughout the latter levels of the Zandvoort race
It actually was not Ferrari’s day at Zandvoort. First, Lewis Hamilton misplaced management on a moist and slippery little bit of paint and have become the primary to retire from the Dutch Grand Prix, earlier than team-mate Charles Leclerc additionally endured an early finish to his race.
The Monegasque’s DNF was actually no fault of his personal. He was the unlucky sufferer of an overly-ambitious transfer from Kimi Antonelli who tried an overtake that was by no means on and he ended up punting the Ferrari into the barrier and out of the race. Leclerc’s disappointment was apparent as he reported what had occurred over the radio, and in his physique language after climbing out of his automotive. He eliminated his helmet and sat in one of many marshals’ fold-out chairs as he processed what had occurred to him.
And, as a substitute of trudging again to the paddock, he determined to make use of the chance to soak up a number of the motion from the followers’ perspective. Leclerc discovered a sand dune to perch himself on and watched on, nonetheless sporting his purple Ferrari race overalls, because the race resumed with out him.
There have been loads of photographers round to get snaps of the racer pondering his predicament. And as these photos filtered onto social media, followers had been fast to attract comparisons to widespread memes and discover the humorous facet.
One wrote: “Bro is doing a photoshoot there!” A second stated: “Solely a Ferrari driver might aura farm a DNF this tough.” And a 3rd added: “Not less than two of those can be utilized for any of his upcoming influencer pictures.”
Leclerc did ultimately make it again to the paddock the place he wanted to fulfil his media duties earlier than heading to see the stewards, accused of getting illegally overtaken George Russell earlier within the race. And whereas his frustration was evident, he was eager to not be too laborious on rookie Antonelli.
He stated: “Kimi’s incident is the best way it’s. I feel errors occur on a monitor like this, you have to be incisive and aggressive to make a cross, and that is what I’ve achieved as properly in opposition to George. That is what Kimi tried to do on myself, however I feel he most likely misjudged it and sort of ruined my race. It is a disgrace, but it surely’s the best way it’s.
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Leclerc had pitted shortly earlier than that crash as Ferrari reacted to Mercedes bringing Antonelli in for recent tyres. And he made it clear over the radio after the incident that he didn’t suppose it was essential to have stopped, however resisted the chance to criticise the group for having put him into that battle which resulted in tears.
He added: “I assume the group had a distinct opinion with all the information that they had out there they usually thought that this was the best alternative, which possibly it was. However, clearly, that places us right into a scenario of fairly a little bit of stress. However other than that, I do not suppose it was a mistake both approach.”
