Charles Leclerc hammers Isack Hadjar with 'nonsense' Max Verstappen response

Charles Leclerc has dismissed Isack Hadjar's claim that Max Verstappen would have won the Singapore Grand Prix by a bigger margin had he been driving a Ferrari, branding the suggestion "nonsense".

Hadjar made the remark ahead of this weekend's United States Grand Prix, downplaying Red Bull's pace advantage and insisting the Milton Keynes-based team did not have the fastest car on the grid in Singapore, despite Verstappen converting pole into victory.

The Dutchman controlled the race from the front at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, managing his tyres to beat Leclerc by 7.335 seconds, with Kimi Antonelli completing the podium for Mercedes.

Leclerc could not get near the four-time F1 champion in the race, and he was left far from impressed when asked about Hadjar's comments.

Speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, ahead of the Circuit of the Americas weekend, Leclerc made clear he felt Hadjar was in no position to judge.

"I think it's nonsense to start saying these kinds of things," said Leclerc.

"I mean, Isack has no idea what kind of car we drive, and I have no idea what kind of car he drives."

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Leclerc predicts 'very tight' fight

The Ferrari driver finished second in Singapore after struggling to make progress in Verstappen's dirty air, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton fading to sixth after an extended stint on soft tyres that left him exposed in the closing laps.

Looking ahead to Austin, Leclerc was cautious about predicting how the order might shake out, pointing to how tight the field has become across the back end of the season.

"It's such a tight field that it's very, very difficult for us to predict," he said.

"Yes, of course, we kind of have an idea of how we will be on this track, but when you are speaking about such fine margins, it relies really on optimising your package, and that has a much bigger influence than what we expect in terms of the cars.

"The only outlier in the last few races is that maybe we expected Mercedes to be further ahead than they actually were.

"If they manage to finally unlock the performance that we kind of had in mind for them in the last few races, then I think they will be further ahead than any others, but otherwise, it's going to be very tight."