Leclerc ‘very happy’ with unexpected podium finish in Spain as he outlines clash with Verstappen

Along with George Russell, Charles Leclerc was another party involved in the late-race drama in Spain that saw Max Verstappen lose out on what was previously a near definite podium finish, with the Monegasque claiming third place instead.

Leclerc was able to claim his second consecutive podium finish as a result of a late move, which was made possible after the Safety Car bunched up the field and positioned him directly behind Verstappen.

READ MORE: ‘I just got crashed into!’ – Russell and Verstappen offer verdicts on dramatic collision in Spain

With the Red Bull racer on fresh hard tyres, which take longer to build up the necessary grip, he had a frightening moment coming out of the final corner that saw him barely keep his car on the circuit.

The error helped Leclerc to pull alongside and edge ahead of the Dutchman, but the two made brief contact during the overtake, prompting the latter to rage over the radio: “He just rammed into me! That’s a penalty.”

The Ferrari driver held onto P3 for the few remaining laps, while things went from bad to worse for Verstappen as he was penalised after colliding with Russell and received a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision, dropping him to 10th.

“The Safety Car helped us,” Leclerc later summarised. “Basically, Max had no tyres except the hard tyre, which put him in a bad situation. We took advantage of it.

READ MORE: Piastri leads McLaren 1-2 from Norris in Spanish GP amid late-race drama for Verstappen and Russell

“On the contact, I don’t think there’s anything special. Max did a mistake out of the last corner, I went side by side. He tried to bring me onto the dirty side of the track, as I would have done, which is normal.

“Then once I had the upper hand in terms of speed, I tried to take the slipstream a little bit. On the first move, I was willing to move a tiny bit. On the second move, he wasn’t. That is the difference of [whether we make] contact or not. At the end of the day that’s racing – I don’t think there’s any big problem in it.”

A podium finish came as a pleasant surprise to Leclerc, who had previously predicted that Ferrari would be unable to be as strong as they were in Monaco, where he narrowly missed out on pole position and victory to Lando Norris.

His reduced expectations contributed to his decision to sacrifice a second flying lap in Qualifying at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which left him to start the Grand Prix from seventh on the grid while crucially reserving an extra set of tyres.

WATCH: Verstappen collides with Russell in astounding moment during Spanish GP

“I didn’t know whether it would pay off – at the end it did,” he said. “I think P4 in a normal race would have been our position. With a Safety Car we got lucky and a podium, so I’m really happy with that.

“When my engineer told me that Max was going on a new hard for the last stint, I guess they had no choice. I was obviously very optimistic because I knew how bad the hard was and that’s where I thought I really need to have a good restart and maybe there’s an opportunity. There was. I just wanted the slipstream in front but it all worked out well!”