Charles Leclerc admits "most exciting part" of Qatar GP was working out title fight maths

Charles Leclerc admitted his own "boring" Qatar Grand Prix turned into a race of mentally calculating the tight title fight between Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen

Charles Leclerc revealed that the most exciting part of his race during the Qatar Grand Prix was calculating the championship points in the title battle between Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen.

The Ferrari driver suffered a difficult weekend, along with his team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Leclerc finished eighth with Hamilton behind in 12th. As he struggled to find confidence and pace in the car, the Monegasque driver turned his attention to watching the race ahead of him and working out the points in the championship fight.

Piastri, who started from pole position, lost the win to four-time champion Verstappen after McLaren decided not to pit either the Australian driver or Norris under an early safety car. The Woking outfit had the opportunity to edge Verstappen out of the championship battle in Qatar, but it will now go down to the wire in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Heading into the season finale, Norris leads the standings with 12 points over Verstappen in second and Piastri trails the Dutchman by four points in third.

"It's a tough one. It's a tough one," Leclerc explained when asked who his money was on for the championship win.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Lars Baron / LAT Images via Getty Images

"I think anything can happen when it's that little points in between. I don't know. It's probably going to be between Lando and Max, but anything can happen, especially with the tension that there will be.

"Incidents can play a huge part in it and they are all fighting for positions. It's been a very boring weekend for me, but I could follow on the screen a little bit of that and was trying to do the math in my head, and at least that was the most exciting part of my race - apart from that, it was very boring, and I hope we have an exciting last race in Abu Dhabi."

He added: "It's great. I wish it was a four[-way] battle and that I would be involved. I want to race. I want to be fighting at the top, and it's nice to see those battles, but it would be lovely if I could be part of it."