Charles Leclerc had every reason to leave Miami with a big points haul. Instead, he spun on the final lap while chasing Oscar Piastri, clipped the wall, and came home sixth with a broken suspension – a result that wasn’t reflective of his campaign up to that point.
The Monegasque had been in the thick of a three-way fight for the lead early on against Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris, and he was still very much in contention for the podium deep into the second half of the race. The collapse, when it came, took only four corners.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the chequered flag, Leclerc didn’t reach for excuses.
“It’s all on me. I don’t have much to add other than that. Very disappointed with my mistake. It shouldn’t happen,” he said. “I pushed very hard in the second-to-last lap. I thought it was a good idea to let Oscar go for me to get the overtake. I knew it was going to be very difficult to get in front otherwise.
“It was a very poor decision and in the space of four corners I put a very strong race in the bin. I am very frustrated about that. Not much more to say.”
A Sixth Place That Could Yet Get Worse
Leclerc is now also under investigation for both leaving the track and gaining an advantage, and for continuing in a potentially unsafe condition after the spin in Turn 3 on the final lap with what appeared to be a damaged front-left steering arm. He also faces a separate inquiry for making contact with George Russell at the Turn 17 hairpin.
That’s how chaotic that final lap became.
A five-second penalty wouldn’t change his position, but a ten-second sanction would drop him below Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton into seventh.
Hamilton only learned of the sister car‘s fate over the radio. Asking who had won, he was told by his engineer Carlo Santi that Leclerc had ended up behind Norris, Piastri, George Russell, and Verstappen after touching the wall.
“I don’t know what the decision will be,” he said on his looming investigations. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see. The thing I can say is I did my best to try and make the corners first of all. It was probably a lot more difficult than it looked from outside.”
At the front of the pack, Kimi Antonelli defeated Lando Norris to take his third consecutive grand prix win, extending his championship lead over Russell to 20 points.
Leclerc’s final-lap implosion handed Russell and Verstappen the positions they needed to salvage something from a race that was also messy for them. This is about the only thing Leclerc’s afternoon had in common with theirs. He was the one who gave it away.
