Ferrari secured its second consecutive victory after profitable in the USA Grand Prix on the Austin circuit, ending first on the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix with Carlos Sainz, however the probability for a second double win evaporated only a few laps from the top as a consequence of an error made by Charles Leclerc as he exited the ultimate nook.
The Monegasque misplaced management of the rear finish, going off observe and permitting a charging Lando Norris to move him at the start of the straight. From that second on, Charles Leclerc centered solely on bringing his SF-24 to the end line, contributing to recovering factors in opposition to McLaren within the Constructors’ Championship.
The ultimate outcome indicated that Lando Norris was quicker than the Monegasque driver within the final stint on onerous tires, however Frédéric Vasseur, Ferrari’s crew principal, defined what led Charles Leclerc to lose all of the benefit he had over the McLaren rival earlier than making the decisive mistake on the final nook.
In accordance with the French supervisor, the lapped drivers in entrance of Charles (notably Lance Stroll, although he was by no means explicitly named) took too lengthy to respect the blue flags correctly displayed by the observe marshals and let the Ferrari driver move. This led to a lack of tire temperature within the SF-24, which proved essential within the misplaced battle in opposition to Lando Norris only a few kilometers later.
Frederic Vasseur pointed fingers at Franco Colapinto, Liam Lawson, and Lance Stroll for ignoring blue flags, which in the end proved expensive for the Maranello crew: “[Leclerc] misplaced three or 4 seconds into the visitors with some idiots,” the French supervisor defined in an interview for Sky Sports activities F1 on the finish of the Mexican Grand Prix – “That Norris was in the end quicker than Leclerc is an evaluation made by others, and I don’t agree. Norris got here again, Charles pushed a bit an excessive amount of. Maybe he misplaced additionally a little bit little bit of temperature within the tyres when he was with these guys. Actually, they need to respect the blue flag and I don’t perceive why the FIA didn’t give them a penalty. We had 4 seconds on Norris. And after the three guys, we had been 1.2 or 1.3 forward.”
Throughout his post-race dialogue with choose media, the Ferrari crew principal elaborated on his ideas: “Charles was not completely happy [Saturday] with P3 or P4, however nonetheless immediately he did a great race. I’m a bit upset with the story with the blue flag, it value us P2. However on the finish of the day, it’s like it’s, however we now have to be centered now on the following one and neglect this one. Whenever you do 5 corners when the man has a strong blue, it’s not unlucky. It’s a mistake of the man.” – the French supervisor identified.
In abstract, with out the conduct deemed incorrect by the lapped drivers, Charles Leclerc would have had the chance to provide Ferrari a second consecutive one-two end, this time on the 4.304-kilometre Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico Metropolis, though McLaren confirmed barely higher tempo on the onerous tires within the final stint.
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