The Verstappen fight factors that led to Leclerc's costly crash

The tussle for French Grand Prix victory was bubbling up nicely between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen, right up until the Ferrari driver made a critical error which handed his Formula 1 world title rival a straightforward path to win and cement his championship advantage. But even though Leclerc owned up to his mistake, how the race unfolded at the front set his costly crash in motion

"Noooo!" The anguish in Charles Leclerc's scream of frustration as he switched his Ferrari off for the second time while stuck in the Beausset barriers was one of a racer knowing their big chance is slipping away.

Since his Imola off chasing Sergio Perez, pretty much all of Leclerc's shocking 2022 misfortune had been out of his hands. But his spin on lap 18 of last weekend's French Grand Prix, ultimately won by Max Verstappen, was all his own doing. And he knew it. Leclerc was alone when everything went so horribly wrong for him at Paul Ricard. Afterwards, he typically fronted up to his own error.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.