F1 | British GP | Leclerc says there is no bad blood between him and Perez after Austrian GP battles
The Monegasque driver clarified that he and Sergio Perez are at peace with each other, after their harsh wheel-to-wheel actions during the Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
During the Austrian GP, Mexican Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc were the protagonists of some pretty intense battles, which the Monegasque criticized for having “ruined his race”.
Red Bull’s Perez dropped down to tenth in the early stages of the race after he was pushed off the track by Lando Norris as the pair battled for second. Norris was then handed a five-second penalty for the incident.
Charles Leclerc says he and Checo talked after the race and explained that there is no bad blood between them following their on-track wheel to wheel actions, which saw the Monegasque driver forced off track on two separate occasions.
The two were battling for sixth place for the majority of the race. They made contact at Turn 4 and then almost collided again at Turn 6. Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was forced wide on both occasions and Perez was consequently handed a penalty for his actions.
The 23-year-old driver, however, clarified that there are no bad feelings between the two.
"I spoke to him straight away after the race," Leclerc said during the session with selected media. "I could feel that straightaway he felt like he had gone a bit too far, and then we saw each other like 20 minutes after the heat of the moment and then he apologised.
"There are no bad feelings. Obviously, during the race, I was quite frustrated. I felt like there was quite a bit more pace from me and I couldn't show it but it's fine. It's part of racing and now I'll just look forward."
Talking about the upcoming British GP, Charles Leclerc is confident the team will be able to further showcase their improvements and hopes they can boost their race pace compared to Austria.
"In Austria, we were a bit less strong in qualifying but very strong in the race," Leclerc added, "hopefully here we can be a bit stronger in quali while not sacrificing our race pace”.
The Monegasque managed to get to the podium at Silverstone in the past, hopefully, he can repeat such a strong performance while being mindful of tyre management – which, as he admitted, might be a problem.
"Let's not forget Paul Ricard where we had this front tyre issue. Silverstone is quite a difficult track for the front tyres so we need to take care of this. Hopefully, we have done a good enough job to try and avoid this issue this weekend."
