George Russell is sympathetic to Charles Leclerc’s plight, the…
Since his P2 at the Miami Grand Prix, Leclerc has found himself in the midst of a serious run of bad luck.
He was leading in Spain and Baku when his power unit failed, was in the fight for the win in Monaco, Britain and Hungary when Ferrari botched his strategy and then cost himself a potential victory in France when he crashed out while leading.
It means between Miami and Hungary he scored 74 points, whereas his title rival Max Verstappen went from 85 to 258 to lead the standings by 80 points ahead of Leclerc.
Russell says he feels for the Monégasque driver.
“Max and Red Bull are cruising,” the Mercedes driver told Sky F1.
“I think Max and Charles, they are on a similar level at the moment but I really feel for Charles because he is doing a superb job at the minute and has been on the receiving end of a lot of bad luck.
“Max and Red Bull are just absolutely solid week in, week out. We’ve seen from the last couple of race weekends they can just bring the car home and pick up the pieces.”
Mercedes, though, have not been doing too badly themselves, stringing together a run of six successive podium finishes of which the last two, France and Hungary, were double podiums.
“There is no doubt we are making progress,” said Russell. “As a team, we finished almost a minute behind the race winner at the start of the season but now it’s 10 seconds in the last couple of races.
“So if we can continue on that path we will definitely be in the hunt.”
The timeline of Charles Leclerc’s lost points
Imola Grand Prix – 7 points
Chasing down Sergio Perez for third place, Leclerc concedes he pushed too hard and spun at the chicane. Breaking his front wing on the barrier, he pitted and fell to sixth.
Spanish Grand Prix – 25 points
Starting from pole position, Leclerc built up a significant lead over the chasing pack when his Ferrari engine expired. Ferrari later confirmed it was a turbo and MGU-H failure.
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Monaco Grand Prix – 13 points
Leading his home race having started from pole position, Ferrari pitted Leclerc for intermediate tyres as they reacted to Red Bull. But with the track drying out fast, he was back in two laps later for slick tyres in a double-stack stop. He came out down in P4 and was unable to recover.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix – 25 points
Up into P1 having undercut Perez and running ahead of Verstappen, Leclerc’s Ferrari engine let go in a billow of smoke on the main straight. The driver’s second DNF from P1 for the season.