Charles Leclerc reflects on tight Verstappen COTA battle.
Charles Leclerc has admitted that his wheel-to-wheel fight with Max Verstappen at the United States Grand Prix was always going to be tight, and that a lack of battery energy would have made it hard to keep the Red Bull behind. The Ferrari driver reflected on the early battle after Sunday’s race at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, praising Verstappen’s aggression while accepting that he can be every bit as hard on track.
His comments came after a race in which Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli turned pole position into a comfortable victory, leaving Leclerc and Verstappen to fight for the remaining podium places. According to PlanetF1, Verstappen lost a position to Leclerc off the line, then took it back by Turn 15.
Leclerc Praises Verstappen’s Racecraft in Austin
Asked about the early exchanges, Leclerc was complimentary about his rival and candid about his own approach. “I knew it was going to be tight,” he said. “Max is an animal on track, and I feel like sometimes when I close the visor, I can be that as well.”
Leclerc said that mutual hardness is exactly what makes the duel so compelling. “That’s why it’s exciting,” he explained, “because I know he’s not gonna leave me much space, and the same I will do for him.” The remark underlines how little margin the two drivers gave each other through the opening corners at COTA, and it shows a driver who is comfortable meeting aggression with aggression.
The exchange also offered a window into how the two approach wheel-to-wheel racing. Leclerc did not present himself as the victim of Verstappen’s hard style. Instead, he framed it as a shared attitude, one in which both drivers expect to give and take very little room.
Turn 15 Proves the Turning Point
Leclerc said he was pleased to come out of the first sequence of corners ahead. “It was good to end up on top after those first few corners,” he said, “but then he surprised me again in turn 15.”
PlanetF1 reports that Verstappen launched from the front row on soft tyres, initially lost out to Leclerc, and withstood heavy pressure from Lewis Hamilton in the second Ferrari before re-passing Leclerc by Turn 15. Verstappen described his own getaway as normal and noted that he did not drop a position overall.
Leclerc came back to the same corner at the end of his answer, again saying Verstappen had surprised him there. His account lines up with the timing of the pass described in race coverage.
Low Battery Limited Leclerc’s Defence
Leclerc was open about why the position would have been difficult to protect. “I don’t think I would have kept him behind because I had very low battery,” he said, adding that he “probably will have struggled to keep him behind later on.”
Energy management has been a recurring talking point this season under the new power unit rules, with drivers regularly discussing battery levels and deployment after sessions. Leclerc’s explanation fits that pattern. Even if he had held position through Turn 15, he suggested the lack of stored energy would have made a longer defence hard to sustain against a driver he had just described as an animal on track.
It also gives a clear reason why Leclerc believes the Turn 15 pass was less a failure of defence than a consequence of the energy available to him.
Verstappen Frustrated Despite Podium
Verstappen finished third and was far from satisfied with the afternoon. His verdict was blunt: “Pretty frustrating to be honest.” PlanetF1 reports that he questioned Red Bull’s tyre strategy, complained of inconsistent power unit behaviour and an engine braking problem, and pointed to a slow pit stop that cost him time while he was fighting for second place. He also criticised recurring radio problems with the pit wall.
Verstappen ran soft, soft, medium on a two-stop strategy, while Antonelli went with a one-stop on mediums from pole. He said the softer compounds did not work as expected and that the order in which Red Bull used its tyres was wrong, adding that a different choice could have put him second. He described the RB22 as balanced but not the quickest in either high-speed or low-speed corners.
Verstappen is now mathematically out of the championship fight following the race in Austin.
Antonelli Wins as Title Fight Moves On
At the front, Antonelli controlled the race from pole position on a one-stop plan and took a comfortable win, though the championship was not sealed in Austin. Leclerc finished second, ahead of Verstappen in third, after the two had swapped places early on. It was a strong result for Ferrari after what PlanetF1 described as a qualifying collapse for the team at COTA.
ALSO READ: Hamilton Blames Balance as Leclerc Hails Podium
Ferrari also had Lewis Hamilton in the fight, with PlanetF1 noting that he put heavy pressure on Verstappen during the race.
For Leclerc, the afternoon was as much about the duel as the result. By his own account the fight with Verstappen was tight, exciting and decided by small margins, and the battery situation meant it could easily have gone the other way. The same energy-management questions will keep shaping how these close fights play out in the remaining races of the season.
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