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Charles Leclerc lashed out at his race engineer in the final stages of the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix when he was told the gap time to Max Verstappen behind him. The Monegasque asked his engineer to leave him alone amid his battle with the Red Bull driver for P3 at Spa on Sunday, July 27.
Charles Leclerc managed to pip Max Verstappen by 0.003 seconds in qualifying for the third position on the grid at the Belgian GP. This turned out to be a crucial moment for the Ferrari driver, who managed to keep the place in front of his rival at the start of the race.
In the final stages of the race, Leclerc locked up coming into the bus stop chicane, which allowed Verstappen to close within a second of him. The 27-year-old's race engineer, Bryan Bozzi, came over the team radio to inform the driver about the gap behind him.
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"Verstappen 1.2 seconds behind," said Bozzi.
Leclerc lashed out at Bozzi's comments and replied, saying:
"Leave me alone please. I can have no information, then when he's getting close I have too much information. Keep it constant, don't worry."
Leclerc came under pressure from Verstappen in the initial stages of the race, when the whole field was on intermediate tires. But the Dutchman's car wasn't quick enough to get past on the Kemmel straight, even after he followed Leclerc's Ferrari within a tenth of a second into Eau Rouge at one stage.
After the track dried out, Leclerc looked much quicker than the reigning world champion. After the round of pit stops, the 8-time race winner quickly got out of DRS range of Verstappen and didn't look back. He rounded off the podium positions behind race-winner Oscar Piastri and second-placed Lando Norris.
Charles Leclerc reflects on podium finish amid pressure from Max Verstappen at the Belgian GP
Charles Leclerc reflected on a "tricky" battle with Max Verstappen at the Belgian GP, saying it was key to keep the 4x world champion behind in the initial stages of the race. Leclerc managed to come home in P3 to mark his fifth podium finish of the 2025 F1 season.
Speaking in the post-race interview, Leclerc reflected on his race, which was spent looking behind rather than ahead.
"Max was behind the whole race within 2 seconds. I knew the first part of the race was the trickiest as we didn’t have the downforce in the rain," said Leclerc. Luckily it dried up quickly, and then the pace was good. I’m happy we managed to keep the third place," he said.
Leclerc also reflected on the new upgrades brought in by Ferrari this weekend, explaining that they worked as the Italian team had hoped. He also thanked the crew at the team's factory in Maranello for their work on the upgrades.
