Charles Leclerc insists he “had nowhere to go” in the opening corner clash that sent Sergio Perez out of the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Starting from pole position, Leclerc endured a sluggish getaway from the line and was immediately swarmed by Max Verstappen, who cut in between the two Ferrari drivers.

Behind them, Perez had also made a good launch and utilised the slipstream to position his car to the left of Leclerc into Turn 1 in an attempt to sweep right around the outside.

However, Leclerc ended up getting pinched between the two Red Bulls, resulting in the Ferrari driver making contact with Perez’s RB19 and sending it momentarily into the air.

Although Perez was able to nurse his car back to the pits, Red Bull elected to retire the Mexican after inspecting the damage, bringing a premature end to his race.

Leclerc would eventually battle through to claim third but was booed heavily post-race by the hoards of Mexican fans present at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

The Monegasque driver defended his involvement in the incident to the local fans, citing that he was unable to do anything to prevent the touch that sent Perez out.

“A lot of booing…guys,” he said. “I mean, honestly, I had nowhere to go. I was a bit in between the two Red Bulls and, unfortunately, I touched Checo, but I had nowhere to go. So, it’s life.

“It damaged my car. And unfortunately, it ended the race of Checo, but on our end, we maximised our race.

“Of course, I’m disappointed to end the race of Checo like that, but I really didn’t do it on purpose. I had nowhere to go.”

Despite having picked up minor wing damage, Leclerc had extended his opening stint to be running a comfortable second until the race was stopped on Lap 33.

Kevin Magnussen suffered a rear suspension failure that pitched his Haas car into a high-speed impact with the barrier at Turn 9, prompting the red flag to be displayed.

Leclerc, running the Hard tyre, was able to resist Lewis Hamilton on the restart but was powerless to defend from the Mercedes on Mediums, succumbing on Lap 40.

“We struggled a little bit with the Hard after the restart,” Leclerc conceded. “Lewis was really quick on the Medium and then they managed to have a really good degradation, so they were just better today and it’s life.”

Charles Leclerc has explained that better preparation on the out lap was behind the time gain Ferrari found in Q3 to lockout the front row for the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Ferrari had appeared to struggle for pace against its rivals on Friday, prompting Leclerc to admit it would be a “huge surprise” if the team could compete for pole position.

However, the Italian marque stunned the competition early in Q3 when Sainz stormed to the top of the timing tower before Leclerc eclipsed him further by only 0.067s.

Despite being unable to improve on his final tour, Leclerc retained top spot, conceding that until the final segment Ferrari “had no idea” it upheld the speed to achieve pole.

“As I said earlier, it’s again a really big surprise,” Leclerc reflected. “But we keep saying that every time we do a pole position, so people will stop believing in what we say. But I did not expect it.

“And this time until really late in the session. I think in most of the other sessions from Q1 we were on it and then we saw that there was a potential for pole position. There, until Q3, we had no idea that it was inside the car.

“And yeah, for some reason in Q3 I managed to put more or less everything together apart from the last sector. And straight away the lap time came straight away. So that was a good surprise.”

But after Sainz declared Ferrari must understand why its SF-23 proved to be inconsistent across Q3, Leclerc believes qualifying demonstrated it does not yet have a car that is consistently competitive.

“But I think it still shows us that our car is still a bit peaky,” he cautioned. “And we need to work in that direction for it to make it better in all conditions.”

Both Ferrari drivers ended up outside of the top 10 in FP3 after enduring compromised runs and didn’t trouble the top of the times again in the first two stages of qualifying.

However, Leclerc managed to improve upon his time in Q2 by eight-tenths in Q3 to bag pole. The Monegasque attributed his huge improvement to a smoother build-up lap.

“Just having a cleaner lap,” he answered when discussing the sudden lap time gain Ferrari unlocked.

“In Q2, it was a bit messy with the traffic exiting the pit lane. The warm-up is super important and it’s very, very difficult to put the tyres in the right window here.

“So everything makes a difference. It was a very bad on the out lap and then I had a bit of traffic also in my lap, and all of that made a huge difference.

“But it made a much bigger difference than what I thought, because even though I knew there was a bit more time coming, I did not expect to gain eight-tenths.”

Asked if he made any setup changes to the car prior to the session, Leclerc responded: “No. Actually, this weekend, I did not change the car that much!”

Leclerc also lined up on pole last weekend in the United States but instantly relinquished the lead away from the line, eventually slumping to sixth prior to being disqualified.

Although the extensive run down to Turn 1 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez provides opportunities to those behind, Leclerc is confident he can retain first place.

“It’s a very difficult race here,” he acknowledged. “Everything can happen, especially with the cooling. Whichever car is behind will do a bit more management, so that can play in our favour.

“But for that we need to do a good start. And starting first here, it’s always tricky to keep that position into the first corner, but we’ve had pretty good starts this year.

“So I’m confident we can keep that first place into Turn 1 and then we’ll try and do our best race.”

Leclerc believes that Max Verstappen, who will start third, will provide the main challenge to his attempts at securing a first F1 race victory since July last year.

“I mean, this year, clearly, Max has been extremely strong on the race pace,” he noted. “So at the moment it’s Max [that is the favourite for the win].

“We still have a lot of work to do as a team, I think, to match them with our race pace.”

Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were left stunned by the pace that enabled the team to lock-out the front row in qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Ferrari had struggled from the outset at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, not featuring at the top of the timesheets throughout the three practice sessions.

That form continued into the first two stages of qualifying, but the opening runs in Q3 saw Sainz post the fastest time before Leclerc managed to usurp him by just 0.067s.

Although neither Leclerc nor Sainz could improve upon their initial times, the chasing pack were unable to dislodge either of the Italian marque’s two cars on the final laps.

Leclerc, who had ruled Ferrari out of challenging at the sharp end after Friday’s action had concluded, conceded his second consecutive pole was unexpected.

Asked whether he thought Ferrari had the potential to pip Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to top spot, Leclerc said: “Absolutely not.

“It’s been two weekends in a row where we say that, so then people will start not believing us anymore. 

“To be honest I did not expect to be on pole position today, we thought we were lacking quite a bit after FP3. But for some reason once we put everything together it went well, the new tyres we gained a lot.

“But I’m already focusing on tomorrow’s race because many pole positions but now we need to convert it in a win tomorrow and of course it’s going to be very difficult.”

However, Leclerc is wary of the extensively long run down to Turn 1 providing an opportunity at the start to Verstappen, who seized the lead from third two years ago.

“First place here I’m not sure is the best starting place,” he acknowledged. “But anyway, that’s fine, I’m happy, I’ll take that pole position.

“I’m really happy with today and now let’s finalise it tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Sainz’s weekend had began with him missing Thursday’s media day due to illness before his running in FP1 was hampered by a hydraulic problem.

But despite recovering to line up second tomorrow, the Spaniard admits that Ferrari must strive to understand why both drivers experienced mixed fortunes on their Q3 runs.

“It was a very strange one,” Sainz professed. “Honestly, the whole weekend I’ve struggled to put a lap together, and the first lap that I put together was Q3 run one.

“Suddenly it was P1 at the time, and then Charles pipped me by half a tenth.

“But I just struggle to understand where suddenly we can find half a second and then go half a second slower in the next lap.

“It’s very tricky with the tyres, and the feeling with the car is very strange around the circuit,” he continued. “But we managed to put a good lap when it counted, and it puts us in a good position for tomorrow.”

While Leclerc is hopeful of converting his fourth pole of the campaign into an elusive race win in 2023, Sainz is more wary of Ferrari’s long-run limitations tomorrow.

“Clearly, we are not as strong in high fuel as we are in low fuel,” he concluded. “I think our car benefits a lot from that new tyre, Soft tyre peak at the rear.

“We’re going to see how we can do tomorrow to keep those tyres alive and to keep that Red Bull behind, because having two cars in front is a good advantage.”

Charles Leclerc will head a Ferrari front-row for the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix after claiming a 22nd pole-position in his Formula 1 career.

Max Verstappen qualified third, alongside the AlphaTauri of Daniel Ricciardo followed by Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton however Verstappen, Hamilton and George Russell are all amongst a series of drivers currently under investigation by the Stewards.

Read More: F1 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix – Qualifying Results

Track evolution has been a hot topic so far this weekend and with track temperatures reaching 46 degrees Celsius, any mistake or disruption due to traffic would prove costly.

In Q1, Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari all gambled by sending their cars out on circuit on the Medium compound early on.

Red Bull meanwhile played it safe with the Softs, enabling Verstappen to pick up the day where he left off. A 1:18.099s lap-time returned the reigning champion to the top of the pecking order.

Verstappen was followed by the AlphaTauri of Daniel Ricciardo who dragged his AT04 within three-tenths of the Dutchman’s pace.

Ricciardo’s pace seemed indicative of the track evolution present, prompting all cars, with the exception of the Australian to run again despite any strategic gambles.

In the final minutes of the first stage of the session, two separate queues formed behind Verstappen and George Russell. Both will be investigated after the session for impeding.

The result was a train forming in the stadium section featuring the majority of the field as the seconds ticked down.

There was trouble for Fernando Alonso who span in Turn 3 bringing out a yellow flag ahead of those in the train.

Alonso advanced in P10, but it was disaster for Lando Norris who was caught in the traffic and ultimately abandoned his lap. Norris, who looked a serious contender for pole, was eliminated 19th as Logan Sargeant failed to set a valid lap-time.

Also eliminated from the session were Esteban Ocon, Kevin Magnussen, Lance Stroll and Logan Sargeant. Lewis Hamilton will be investigated after the session for a potential failure to slow for the yellow flags triggered by Alonso’s spin.

With 15 minutes back on the clock for Q2, Red Bull wasted no time in sending its drivers back out on track, perhaps taking note from the chaos that ensued at the end of Q1.

Verstappen clocked a 1:17.625 right off the bat before returning to the pit-lane. Oscar Piastri slotted into second, a quarter of a second behind and closely followed by Ricciardo.

There was another mess at the end of the pitlane nearing the end of Q2 as again, drivers queued front wing to gearbox and side by side as some trundled back onto the racetrack, and others formed another traffic jam at the pit exit.

Verstappen, confident in his benchmark, was the only driver to not return to the track as Yuki Tsunoda, who will start tomorrow’s race from the rear as a result of a power unit change, towed Ricciardo for a final tour.

For the first time this weekend, Verstappen failed to finish a session on top as Hamilton found an extra half-a-tenth.

After being mightily impressive all weekend, Alex Albon initially scraped his way into Q3 but his lap-time was deleted for track limits after the chequered flag.

Accounting for Albon’s misfortune, Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg and Alonso were eliminated. Albon drops to 14th and Tsunoda was the last driver in the drop zone but will start the race from the rear.

With Verstappen, Russell and Hamilton all under investigation for various incidents, the door was wide open in the squabble for pole.

Verstappen’s first effort was slightly compromised when he took too much kerb at Turn 8, with the time loss enough to afford a provisional front-row lockout to Ferrari, headed by Leclerc on a 1:17.166s. Verstappen held third, 0.120s slower than his rivals again closely shadowed by Ricciardo.

On their final attempts, neither Ferrari was able to find time in the first two sectors, leaving it all to play for. Ricciardo also failed to improve, as all eyes turned to Red Bull.

Verstappen, however, had fund gains in the first two sectors but the three-time champion lost the advantage in the final corner dashing his hopes of pole.

Perez and Hamilton were both able to improve, but not enough to challenge for pole setting meaning Ferrari held onto the front-row as Leclerc claimed a 22nd career pole.

Verstappen and Ricciardo will share row two, followed by Perez who will start his home race from fifth.

Hamilton occupies sixth followed by Piastri, Russell and the Alfa Romeo duo headed by 2021 polesitter Valtteri Bottas.

The caveat remains that Verstappen, Russell and Hamilton – and others – are all currently under investigation for incidents picked up during the session.

The Mexico City Grand Prix gets underway at 14:00 local time on Sunday.

There is little optimism for Ferrari’s Mexico City Grand Prix weekend as Charles Leclerc warns it will be a ‘huge surprise’ to see a scarlet car challenge for pole on Saturday.

Leclerc enters the Mexico race weekend off the back of a pole position in Austin, but the Monegasque is doubtful over the possibility of repeating last weekend’s qualifying result.

Despite his concerns, Leclerc enjoyed a rather straight-forward day of running on Friday which saw him fifth fastest in FP1.

The Ferrari ace later improved to third in FP2, only 0.266s slower than pacesetter Max Verstappen in the Red Bull.

Lando Norris split Leclerc and Verstappen after the conclusion of FP2, with Leclerc fearing that the SF-23 won’t be able to prove a match for some of its nearest competitors.

“We still have a lot of work to do because the McLaren seems to be extremely strong, obviously the Red Bull and Max seem to be very very strong,” the 21-time polesitter said.

“Mercedes are a bit more difficult to read into for now but focusing on ourselves, we know what are the areas we need to work on and hopefully that will help us take a step forward tomorrow.

“It will be a huge surprise if we do pole position tomorrow, but never say never. It’s a tricky track, it’s very difficult to put a lap together but I feel this weekend we are a bit too far away.”

Things were less straight-forward on the opposite side of the Ferrari garage as Carlos Sainz suffered a hydraulics issue early in FP1, which cost him some valuable running.

“It’s been a tricky day for us to be honest,” conceded the Spaniard, who is still recovering from an illness which saw him skip Thursday’s media duties.

“I think we expected to be a bit more competitive but for one reason or another, we didn’t seem to nail the balance.

Amid the set-back, the 29-year-old echoed his team-mate’s concerns, admitting that it could be an uphill battle for the Italian marque to challenge at the top on Sunday.

“Over one lap especially we seem to struggle quite a lot with rear grip and that’s our main point of focus for tomorrow [Saturday],” he added.

“That soft tyre is quite soft and overheats pretty quickly and gets you in trouble. Now we are going to focus and see if we can improve our one lap pace. The field seems to be really tight so I think it’s going to be tough fights in Q1, Q2 and Q3.”

Sainz was only able to manage 11th fastest in the slightly-drizzly FP2 session, three tenths shy of Leclerc’s best.

But having experienced illness and then missed out on some track-time, the ex-McLaren driver hopes for better fortunes over the remainder of the weekend.

“Maybe today I was not 100% although I was feeling okay. I should only get better through the weekend,” Sainz concluded.

Charles Leclerc insists that Ferrari discovering “zero wear” on the plank of its cars on Friday is “no excuse” for his disqualification from the United States Grand Prix.

Both Leclerc and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton were disqualified post-race after it was found that their respective cars did not comply with the regulations governing plank wear.

Mercedes admitted it was caught out by the Sprint format only granting the teams one practice hour before the cars are locked into their set-ups under parc ferme conditions.

Leclerc reveals that the announcement also came as a “complete surprise” to Ferrari, having not suspected that the team’s SF-23 was going to be marginal on plank wear.

“Honestly, it was a complete surprise because on Friday, when we could still change the car, there was zero wear, so it’s not like we were touching anywhere,” he issued.

“Then you get to the race and, of course, things have changed, because we were illegal. Rules are rules, so they need to be respected wherever, so it’s not an excuse to say that Friday we were fine. We need to look into it to find out how to better anticipate what the wear is going to be.”

Leclerc contends that even as late as Saturday night Ferrari had been confident that it would not encounter trouble from its car running too close to the ground.

He added: “Also on Saturday night we could see more or less where we were touching, we thought there was still plenty of margin, then we finished Sunday and it was a big surprise.

“We are still on the analyzing part of where we did wear the plank more than we expected, because we didn’t expect that. I was still at the track, but it’s the kind of thing you need to accept, there’s nothing to fight for with those things.”

The magnitude of the bumps present at the Circuit of the Americas this year prompted Max Verstappen to dispute that the venue’s track surface was not up to “F1 level”.

But Leclerc has denied that the bumps were the primary contributor to Ferrari falling foul of the rulebook, citing that there would have been many reasons for the excessive wear.

“There are so many more things, there’s also kerb riding, there are different things,” he disputed. “But kerb riding is also a thing, but at the end, we should have anticipated better, and we’ll look into it for the future.”

Prior to being disqualified, Leclerc had rued being the only driver on a wretched one-stop strategy that dropped him from pole position down to sixth place by the chequered flag.

After Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur acknowledged the side made an incorrect call, Leclerc underlined that the Maranello camp has learnt from the mistake.

“We looked into it. We understood that, obviously, it was the wrong choice,” he said.

“We checked back the numbers and we adjusted that, so at the end it’s all about learning and trying to go forward. Of course, this time it was a bit more different than others because we were basically the only car doing something so different. But we understood what went wrong.”

Last year’s Mexico City Grand Prix saw Ferrari slump to one of its least competitive showings of the entire campaign, comfortably ending up third-best.

Despite a challenging season, Leclerc is optimistic that the Italian marque will overcome the engine cooling troubles that stymied its competitiveness 12 months ago.

“Last year it was a very, very difficult race for us here, we had quite a lot of problems with our package here, especially with the Power Unit, but we don’t to have the same issues this year, so I hope it’s going to be a step forward,” the Monegasque said.

“We have a very different package this year, so it should be better than last year.”

Carlos Sainz explains difficulty with the bumps was responsible for him being unable to match Charles Leclerc’s pace across the weekend at the Circuit of the Americas.

While Leclerc stormed to pole position in Friday’s qualifying hour, Sainz could only wound up fourth and was beaten once again in the Shootout ahead of the Sprint race.

The Spaniard would trail his team-mate by over 10s come the end of Saturday’s 19-lap encounter, albeit having been the only driver to run the unfavourable Soft compound.

Sainz was able to usurp Leclerc to finish two spots ahead in Sunday’s race, but the latter was hindered by a rueful one-stop strategy call that left him struggling on ageing tyres.

Prior to that, Leclerc had been running comfortably ahead of the sister car but dropped to sixth before he was disqualified. Meanwhile, Sainz utilised the conventional two-stop to earn a surprise podium once Lewis Hamilton was also disqualified.

Although Sainz accepts that Leclerc was able to contend with the SF-23 being more on edge across COTA’s notorious bumps, he rued the Sprint denying him the chance to make set-up changes to combat his woes.

Asked about Leclerc’s evident advantage in Austin on Saturday, Sainz said: “For me, it’s mainly track characteristics. The car here is bouncing around a lot and jumping around a lot and when that’s the case normally Charles copes with it a bit better than I do.

“And this time I didn’t have time to change the setup to improve it, to put it a bit more to my liking, and go into the race weekend a bit more comfortable with the car to extract more and more performance.

“In Sprint weekends that’s the problem, that you’re stuck with the baseline set up more or less that you can run and the amount of bumps again this year surprised us being even bumpier than last year. I’m just not coping very well with it in the high speed. Not a lot of confidence.

“I feel like the car is going to snap on me at any point in time, and I’m having to drive one step under the limit, which is never ideal in quali.”

Despite being satisfied with his race, Sainz admitted he must investigate the regression in his qualifying performance that has handed the initiative back to Leclerc.

“Something to look into in qualifying, the last couple of races my quali has been nothing special but in the race I’m quick,” he noted. “I was quick in Suzuka, quick here.

“Now I need to focus on getting my quali pace back and keep doing a good job in the race because the pace is definitely solid. I was pushing hard out there along with good tyre management.”

The two-time grand prix winner is optimistic that the smoother asphalt present at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez this weekend in Mexico will boost his prospects.

Sainz is also wary of the issues Ferrari encountered last year when the Italian marque were forced to turn down the engine on both cars amid reliability concerns.

“Smoother, no, Mexico? It’s just the kerbs, kerb riding sector one, sector two it’s a lot to get right,” he explained. “Hopefully we can put the Singapore [where Sainz converted pole into victory] setup on and be quick, and let’s see how the engine behaves this year.”

Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur concedes that it was “not the good choice” to place Charles Leclerc on a one-stop strategy in the United States Grand Prix.

Starting from pole position, Leclerc immediately relinquished a place to Lando Norris before being demoted down to fourth by Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

However, the Monegasque was comfortably running in fourth, approaching 4s clear of team-mate Carlos Sainz directly behind when Ferrari elected to pit the Spaniard first.

Leclerc would have to wait six laps before stopping for the only time, which dropped him into the clutches of Sainz and Sergio Perez in the closing laps on ageing tyres.

Prior to Leclerc being disqualified from the race classification, Vasseur acknowledged that Ferrari made a mistake with his strategy.

“Clearly we have mixed feelings,” Vasseur reflected. “Because on one side of the garage with Carlos, we did pretty well. Starting P4, finishing P4, we finished two or three seconds behind Norris, and I think everything went well.

“With Charles, who was 10 seconds in front of Carlos after 12 laps, we committed for one-stop, and it was not the good choice, it’s obvious.

“Probably the issue is that we didn’t have a clear picture about this before the race, we were a bit hesitating, and he was a bit hesitating into the first stint, pushing or not pushing. And we made a mistake.

“It was not very clear before the race, as you can imagine. We had the two options. In terms of numbers, it was very, very close.

“I think where we made the mistake is that we anticipated that the field will be 50-50. And it was not at all.”

Expanding on that last comment, Vasseur admitted that Ferrari was caught out when the competition avoided a one-stop strategy.

Mercedes potentially lost the chance to beat the two-stopping Verstappen with Hamilton when the side dawdled on abandoning an apparent initial attempt to only pit once.

The Brackley squad would also divert George Russell onto a two-stop, but Vasseur contends it was “easier” for the Briton as he was running a net last in the front pack.

“I think that Hamilton was not far away to do one-stop, Russell, I think he went for one stop clearly, but as he was the last of the group, it’s much easier to change if you are last and you are in the same strategy as the others. It’s better to change and take risks.”

“It’s not just a matter of tenths of seconds on the tyres, it’s a matter of what the others are doing also.

“Because what was even more difficult with Charles was that everybody committed for the two stops.

“It means that you have much more traffic around you, because it’s not that everybody’s doing the same race as you, and you have a clean race, as you are not in the sequence, the guys are overtaking you one or two times.

“And each time that someone is overtaking you, you are losing two seconds. It means that when you have these two times, four guys, you are losing eight times 1.5 seconds, it’s 12 seconds for the traffic, and the picture of what users are doing. But it’s a mistake.”

Sainz revealed that trying to retain pace with Hamilton and Verstappen in the early exchanges led to him heavily wearing his starting tyres, prompting his early first stop.

Vasseur has concurred with Sainz’s comments, citing that the decision to stop twice was more clearcut with the Spanish driver than it was with Leclerc ahead.

“I think the main issue was that we were a bit in-between,” he added. “We moved quickly on the two stops with Carlos, because in the fight with Max, I think he had a bit of deg, and we decided to commit quite early on the two stops. Charles, it was less obvious.”

Meanwhile, Vasseur also refused to speculate on the outcome if Leclerc, who had been the faster of the two Ferraris, had been on an identical strategy to Sainz.

Amid Norris encountering late trouble with his tyres, Sainz closed to within 5s of his ex-McLaren team-mate by the chequered flag.

“For sure you can redo the race and imagine that he was six or seven seconds ahead of Sainz, and Leclerc would have done this or this,” Vasseur recognised.

“But I think it’s not the right approach, we have to be focused on the mistake, to try to understand why you did the choice, because we were convinced that it was the good one, with the elements that we had at this stage.

“It means that the numbers that we had on the pitwall, and at the factory at this stage of the race, were not good ones.”

Charles Leclerc asserts that Ferrari got “something wrong in our numbers” after his one-stop gamble dropped him to sixth on the road in the United States Grand Prix.

Leclerc immediately relinquished his pole position advantage to Lando Norris away from the line before being demoted by Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to fourth.

However, Leclerc was extending his advantage over the cars behind, led by team-mate Carlos Sainz, when Ferrari delayed bringing in its lead driver until Lap 23 of 56.

Although the Monegasque rose to second place once the front-runners committed to a second pit stop, Leclerc plummeted down the order to sixth by the chequered flag.

Leclerc reveals that Ferrari’s estimations initially suggested the one-stop strategy would be a suitable way to run the race, but he accepts it turned out to be the wrong call.

“Straight away from the beginning of the race, we thought the one-stop and the two-stop were extremely close together,” Leclerc, who was later disqualified, explained.

“After 12 or 13 laps, I saw the numbers on the dash and they were pretty good for the one-stop, at least in terms of degradation I wasn’t losing that much time.

“Considering our numbers, the one-stop was the right thing to do but unfortunately, it was definitely the wrong thing to do.

“For some reason, there was something wrong in our numbers today because we were far off the ideal race strategy.”

Asked what went wrong, Leclerc replied: “To be honest, I don’t have the answer yet. It was quite far off the two stops, I mean we finished behind Carlos by about 10 seconds which is a good comparison because we have both got the same car, so yeah.

“There was something off and we will try and understand it.”

With his team-mate on fresher rubber baring down on him, Leclerc was advised to move aside for Sainz, proceeding to abide by the request into Turn 12 with five laps remaining.

Whilst he declared that he wanted to “talk after the race”, Leclerc concedes that he understood the decision once he was told Sergio Perez was closing the Ferraris down.

“I understood 10 seconds later when they reopened the radio to tell me that Checo was behind and coming back a little bit on Carlos,” Leclerc discussed.

“I obviously understood we couldn’t afford to fight so, yeah. I completely understand the reason at the end. As soon as they told me that I got it and I just got on with my race.”

Sainz would then attempt to take advantage of Norris’ struggles in the closing stages to catch the McLaren for third on the road, ultimately ending up 5s shy in his pursuit.

The Spaniard was trailing his team-mate by 3s at the time of his first pit stop, meaning a two-stop strategy could have potentially yielded a podium for Leclerc, who had been the quicker Ferrari during the weekend.

“I could have done many things, better than P6 for sure,” Leclerc rued. “Whether it was P3, P4, I don’t know but definitely a better race than today for sure.”

Despite seeing Leclerc removed from the classification, Ferrari would still claim an unexpected podium as Hamilton’s disqualification promoted Sainz up to third.

Aside from the pain of receiving no reward for his efforts, Leclerc was also battling a “tooth infection” throughout the weekend.

“I’ve been on really big painkillers since Thursday,” he revealed. “For some reason now, it’s actually fine because I took the painkillers before the race. I’ve had times where it’s been more intense but nothing that affects me in the car.

“I had like a tooth infection. I think wisdom tooth? I was in quite a lot of pain on Thursday, Friday then it came down but today was okay.”

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have been excluded from Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix after their respective planks did not comply with the regulations.

Hamilton had finished the race in second, just two seconds behind winner Max Verstappen, while pole starter Charles Leclerc classified sixth.

Post-race checks determined that Hamilton’s W14 and Leclerc’s SF-23 did not comply with the regulations governing plank wear.

“During the hearing the team acknowledged that the measurement performed by the FIA Technical Team was correct and stated that the high wear on the skid pads was probably a result of the unique combination of the bumpy track and the Sprint race schedule that minimized the time to set up and check the car before the race,” read the statement for both drivers.

“The Stewards note that the onus is on the competitor to ensure that the car is in compliance with the regulations at all times during an event.”

Lando Norris has consequently been promoted to second with Carlos Sainz taking home third.

Elsewhere Sergio Perez moves up to fourth, ahead of Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell, with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll now sixth and seventh respectively.

AlphaTauri leaves with a haul of five points following Yuki Tsunoda’s promotion to eighth, having also set the fastest lap, while Williams takes its first double points in over two years.

Alexander Albon slots into ninth while Logan Sargeant becomes America’s first points scorer in 30 years after moving inside the top 10.