How Charles Leclerc got hold of mobile phone after Dutch GP retirement

Charles Leclerc retired from the Dutch Grand Prix after being tagged by Kimi Antonelli, instantly puncturing his rear left tyre and sending him careering helplessly into the barriers.

The incident occurred on lap 53 of the 72-lap race at Zandvoort, robbing him of what would likely have been a fourth-place finish and consigning Ferrari to a pointless afternoon following Lewis Hamilton's - unprovoked - crash at the same corner (Turn 3) earlier on.

A crestfallen Leclerc could not, however, face returning to the paddock immediately, where he would have had to face the cameras and microphones of the media. 

Instead, he sat atop the sand dune on the inside of Turn 3, watching the rest of the race and seemingly ruing his bad luck - and contemplating life more generally.

However, the Monegasque driver was unable to bear his misfortune alone. Instead, an impromptu photo shoot took place once he had been discovered by F1's TV cameras.

And, as a consequence, eagle-eyed viewers noticed the eight-time grand prix winner using a mobile phone, which, understandably, generated considerable intrigue as to how he got hold of one so quickly - and so far from the paddock.

It was evident it was not the 27-year-old's own device, as that is not permitted by the FIA. Plus, why would a driver want the extra weight in the car?

So, when Hadjarfanaat445 asked RacingNews365 how Leclerc got hold of a phone so quickly for our weekly fan questions video, we investigated, with Ian Parkes explaining what had transpired.

"Charles, obviously, in a difficult part of the track to try and get back to the paddock, we saw him almost deck chair-like Fernando Alonso from a few years back, when old Fernando crashed out and he was sat in that deck chair, there was Charles sitting on top of that sand bank," he said.

"And yeah, we saw him with a mobile phone. It was like, Where has he got this from? Surely he hasn't got a mobile phone in his race suit, or, quite naturally, there's not going to be a mobile phone in his car."

"So I contacted Ferrari on the back of this question, funnily enough, because I myself wanted to know - it was a good question.

"And quite simply, Charles knew a photographer who was stationed at that particular part of the circuit, and actually a great part of the circuit to get action shots, and I'm sure that photographer was a very busy boy that day, bearing in mind what happened with Lewis and Charles at that particular point.

"So, Charles knew the photographer. He asked if he could borrow the mobile phone from this photographer, and the photographer, of course, did him a favour, gave Charles the mobile phone, and that's why we saw those great shots on his mobile sitting on a sand bank, watching the rest of the race unfold."