Charles Leclerc was lucky not to crash into the back of the Haas of Kevin Magnussen when the Dane appeared to swerve into the path of the Sauber at top speed down the main straight early on during the Japanese Grand Prix, forcing the Monaco Kid to take avoiding action and triggering his anger at the same time.
Magnussen takes no prisoners and has, in the past, enraged his rivals for his dubious tactics when battling on track, this time Leclerc took exception to the Haas driver’s robust defensive tactics.
And immediately barked over the radio: “Magnussen is stupid and will always be stupid that’s a fact.”
Later, after the race at Suzuka, he told reporters, “For me, there was a similar situation with Kimi and Max one or two years ago in Spa where Max moved at the really last moment and everyone agreed it was dangerous to do that and that it was not allowed anymore.”
“Strangely it’s been accepted today so I will have to get some response on that to just to know what I can do in the car,” added the Ferrari bound driver.
Of his race at Suzuka, Leclerc reported, “It was a fun race, despite not ending the way we would have liked it to. The start was busy, I was fighting with some of the cars around me but eventually had to back off.”
“I lost some places there but fought hard to recover them later on during the race. On the second lap, I was involved in [the] incident.”
“We made a pit stop shortly after that and changed the nose on my car. We knew that it was not ideal to pit so early, but we had to do that to have a chance to fight for points.”
“After that, it went quite well. I was able to recover some positions, but, unfortunately, I had to retire from the race because of a mechanical problem on my car. It is a shame not to finish the race, but I look forward to the next one where I hope to fight for some points again.” concluded Leclerc.
Sauber team chief Frederic Vasseur backed his driver, “It was a tough day. Charles’ race was compromised by the incident with Kevin Magnussen. It was a very dangerous move on his part and Charles’ car was quite damaged after that. We had to change the nose during the pitstop.”