Charles Leclerc made a hilarious plea to Sergio Perez as Ferrari struggled at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Leclerc sat in a chair designed for winner Perez in the room moments after the chequered flag.
The trio watched the highlights of the race on a television screen before Leclerc realised he was in the seat. Realizing his mistake, Leclerc asks, “Do you need your seat?”
Perez didn’t bother to take the winner’s chair, however, and replied, “No, no, that’s fine. “The Mexican then sat in the chair designated for the motive force completing in 3rd place, which Leclerc.
The pair then shared a laugh before the Monegasque added another mockery of the hole between Ferrari and Red Bull. Leclerc added: “Leave me at least. At least the seat. “
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This comes after Ferrari lacked race speed in Baku, despite securing a double pole position on the tricky street circuit. Leclerc ruled the schedules on Friday afternoon and was given a P1 moment to start in board qualifying a few hours later.
After the session, the 25-year-old warned that Ferrari might have trouble involving Red Bull in the race risk and his prediction later proved correct. Max Verstappen overtook Leclerc with the help of DRS a few laps before the Grand Prix.
Perez also overtook a few laps later, and both opened a comfortable gap in the Scuderia. At the chequered flag, Leclerc had lost 21 seconds to the Red Bulls in what he later described as his “loneliest race” of all time.
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Leclerc then suggested his team look for news after showing promising symptoms at the weekend. He explained: “We’re not there yet in terms of race speed and we know that’s what we want to work on to the fullest at the moment. “
“We maximised each and every enquiry over the weekend and we couldn’t have done anything different, so it’s something we can look to the future and the team did a wonderful job. The bottom line is that we want to concentrate on race speed and tyre control. “and push to progress further in the upcoming races.
The result contrasts sharply with last year’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, when Leclerc seemed to be in the race for much of it. However, the Ferrari star was denied victory as he suffered a mechanical failure that forced him out and gave Verstappen the victory.