We have another twist in the tale this season, which features a duel between the Raging Bulls and the Prancing Horses. The French GP featured everything from an off-track strategy drama to thrilling on-track overtaking action. The driver who started the race in pole position, Charles Leclerc, ended the race with his head in his hands.

The Monegasque delivered a flawless weekend until the day when push comes to shove. With the help of a tow from his teammate, Carlos Sainz on Saturday, he clinched the P1 position for the race day. When the lights went out, car number 16 got a great start and maintained its lead going into the first corner.

The Ferrari had an upper hand on the Red Bull with its race pace as Verstappen struggled to overtake his rival on the opening laps. Henceforth, car number 1 stopped on lap number 17 to execute an undercut. This put pressure on the race leader who made a mistake that saw him crashing into the barrier on turn 11 at lap number 18.

As a result, the F1 fans and strategists never got to figure out how strong the undercut was around Le Castellet and missed out on another exhilarating Verstappen-Leclerc duel. After the race, Christian Horner opined on the team’s strategy and Leclerc’s mistake.

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He said “It was the earliest possible time to make a pit stop without being forced to stop again, Verstappen was almost past Leclerc after half of his out-lap. In the second half of the race, the duel would have been reversed, with Ferrari lagging behind but having a tire advantage. Too bad we don’t know how that ended.” (translated using google)

Charles Leclerc frustrated with his performance

This is not the first time in the season that the 24-year-old has thrown away a solid haul of points. Earlier at the Imola GP, he made a mistake while attempting a move on Sergio Perez to climb up to the podium positions. However, an unsuccessful attempt saw him touching the barriers and sustaining nose damage. As a result, he lost 7 valuable points that day.

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At Paul Ricard, a snap of oversteer rained over the Monegasque’s parade. In the crash’s aftermath, heavy breathing and a loud scream featured over the team radio. Charles Leclerc then realized he threw away a potential opportunity to close the gap on his championship rival and commented on it once returning to his garage.

He said “I think it’s just a mistake. Tried to take too much around the outside, put a wheel probably somewhere dirty, but it’s my fault and if I keep doing mistakes like this then I deserve not to win the championship,”

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“I’m losing too many points, I think seven in Imola, 25 here because honestly, we were the strongest car on track today. So yes, if we lose the championship by 32 points at the end of the season, I will know from where they are coming from. And it’s unacceptable, I just need to get on top of those things.”

With 10 races remaining, the defending world champion has extended his advantage upfront by 63 points. Do you think Leclerc’s mistakes would come back to bite him in the remainder of the 2022 season?