Charles Leclerc reveals stance after surprise Max Verstappen contact

Charles Leclerc has given his perspective on the contact he made with Max Verstappen at the safety car restart in Spain.

The Barcelona race was neutralised in the final stages when Kimi Antonelli came to a halt in the gravel with a power unit failure.

Verstappen pitted for fresh tyres for the restart, but only had the hard tyres available for the run to flag, which offered little grip when the race resumed.

The Dutchman had a huge sideways moment coming out of the final corner, allowing Leclerc to draw alongside as they ran towards the first corner.

Verstappen's front tyre made contact with Leclerc's car as they battled for position - with Leclerc suggesting both were equally to blame for the clash.

“It was a battle for the track position to get the slipstream of the guys in front,” Leclerc said. 

“Max wanted to bring me towards the inside, where there's all the rubber. I didn't want to go too much there, so I was trying to push him to the left. 

“There was a little bit of contact, but fortunately for us, no consequences.” 

Leclerc ended the race in third place, marking his third F1 podium of the season.

“I'm really happy,” Leclerc reflected. “Obviously, yesterday, I sacrificed quite a bit qualifying in order to have better tyres for today. 

“I didn't know whether it would pay off. In the end, it did. I think in a normal race, P4 would have been our position.

“With a safety car, we got lucky and got a podium. So I'm really happy with that.”