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Charles Leclerc finished ninth, behind Lewis Hamilton at the Azerbaijan GP. However, he was sought to finish P8, but the Briton didn't let the Monegasque pass him before the finish line. Facing the unexpected result, his engineer apologized for the confusion, prompting the 27-year-old to give a blunt verdict on the situation during his post-race debrief on the in-lap.
The Monegasque had started 10th at the 51-lap event as he had crashed his car in qualifying. Despite this, he was the lead Ferrari driver on the grid as Hamilton had been knocked out in Q2.
Subsequently, both drivers had to mount a recovery drive on Sunday, but were stuck in a DRS train, which was headed by Liam Lawson. So, in an attempt to get at least one driver ahead in the final classification, they allowed Hamilton to move past Leclerc, who was on fresher tires, to try and get past the train of Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda, and Lando Norris.
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However, the seven-time champion also became a victim of the DRS train. So, the team had ordered Leclerc to be let past on the final homestretch of the race, but this instruction was delivered on the final lap, and Hamilton slowed down, but he finished less than half a second ahead of his teammate.
Sharing his thoughts on how the situation played out, with him being snubbed off an eighth-place result, he said over the team radio after Bryan Bozzi apologised for the incident:
"I don't really care, it's for an eighth place, so it's okay, he can enjoy that P8. It's just stupid because it's not fair, but again, I don't mind, honestly."
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton's position swap saga was their first one in their time as teammates.
Charles Leclerc hopes that such a frenzy doesn't happen again with Lewis Hamilton
While Ferrari has not refrained from using team orders, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton had never found each other in such a situation since the start of the 2025 season. So, with the peculiar incident happening at the Azerbaijan GP, the 27-year-old was not totally happy with how things played out.
Subsequently, when asked his thoughts on the whole matter in the post-race interview, he told the media, including SK:
"No, I think it was very clear, but I really don't care for an 8th place at the end. I don't think that this should be the talking point, unfortunately. We have been very slow all weekend and that's where we should focus on. P8 or P9, or P9 or P8 is not something that really interests me, so it's fine. But it's normal for a driver to give the place back if he hasn't passed the guy in front."
"If we are fighting for sexier positions, which I hope will be the case, then I hope that we will work in a different way. But on a day like that, honestly, I don't really mind."
Meanwhile, with Lewis Hamilton finishing ahead of Charles Leclerc in Baku, the intra-team battle's statistics changed again. The Brit has finished ahead of Leclerc in three races so far this season, in comparison to Leclerc remaining 12 times ahead at the chequered flag on other occasions.
