Ferrari staff principal Fred Vasseur believes that Method 1’s backmarkers disobeying blue flags finally value Charles Leclerc second within the Mexico Grand Prix.
Leclerc had a spot of over three seconds to Lando Norris going into the ultimate 15 laps of the 71-lap affair on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez however needed to watch his benefit dissipate when the 2 began to lap visitors – encountering Lance Stroll, Liam Lawson and Franco Colapinto.
The Monegasque then cleared the now-lapped with about half of that preliminary benefit, which Norris was capable of shut down and start making use of stress. Leclerc then went vast on the Peraltada on the finish of lap 62 and saved his Ferrari from succumbing to a snap of oversteer – which let Norris by.
Vasseur disagreed with an evaluation that Norris was sooner within the closing phases, stating that Leclerc misplaced time and tyre temperature wrangling with the visitors – significantly Stroll, behind whom Leclerc misplaced most of his benefit.
“It is your evaluation [Norris was faster] however I am probably not aligned. I feel that Charles had good tempo, however we misplaced three seconds with the fellows who have been blue-flagged,” Vasseur defined.
“And we additionally misplaced loads of temperature within the tyres at this stage and he made a mistake, however I feel from the start, the race was beneath management.
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Picture by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Pictures
“Charles was not pleased yesterday with P3 or P4, however nonetheless at present he did a superb race. I am 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’ve to be targeted now on the subsequent one and neglect this one.
“Once you do 5 corners when the man has a stable blue, it isn’t unlucky. It is a mistake of the man.”
Elaborating additional when chatting with Sky Sports activities F1, Vasseur acknowledged that “[Leclerc] misplaced three or 4 seconds into the visitors with some idiots. Norris got here again, Charles pushed a bit an excessive amount of. Maybe he misplaced additionally somewhat little bit of temperature within the tyres when he was with these guys.
“Actually, they must respect the blue flag and I do not perceive why the FIA did not give them a penalty. We had 4 seconds on Norris. And after the three guys, we have been 1.2 or 1.3 forward.”
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Leclerc advised that he had “no probability” of beating Norris when the McLaren driver started to shut, stating that his conflict with Max Verstappen had helped Ferrari construct one thing of a buffer.
“Lando was flying, and I feel as a staff, we have been fairly fortunate that no matter occurred with Max and Lando initially of the race, slowed him down massively.
“His second stint was very, very spectacular. On my aspect, there was no method that I may keep in entrance. I knew that it might be very tough.
“I knew that I needed to have an unimaginable exit out of the final nook, so I attempted to place all the things to have a extremely good exit, went over the restrict, misplaced the automobile and misplaced the place, however I felt it was a query of laps or corners earlier than I misplaced that place.”
