Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has denied that extra pressure on his shoulders resulted in his crash from the lead of the French Grand Prix last weekend.
Leclerc fended off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the opening stages of the race, with the Dutchman then opting to take a pit stop in an attempt to undercut his title rival.
Shortly before he was due to change tyres, Leclerc spun off the road and hit the wall, retiring from the race.
The Monegasque driver asserts that the extra pressure that was placed on him following Verstappen’s pit stop did not directly result in his mistake.
“In the end, the real pressure, I had it before that when Max was really behind,” Leclerc said.
“At that point Max had moved to a non-optimal strategy so I just had to push and focus on my own race which I was doing.
“But obviously when you are fighting with the limits, sometimes mistakes can happen and I think this is the kind of mistake that I just went too far. That’s it.”
Verstappen went on to win the race and extended his lead atop the Drivers’ Championship to 63 points.
Despite his championship hopes taking a hit, Leclerc says that he has moved on from the incident ahead of this weekend’s race in Hungary.
“There is nothing that will help me dwelling on my mistake or staying in the past on my mistake,” he said.
“I did that mistake, it cost me lots of points, I’m aware of it and that’s it. Now I just need to move on, focus 100 per cent for this weekend. Try to do the best possible job, try to win this race and then I’m sure it’ll go well.”