Charles Leclerc Belgian Grand Prix was damaged by a protective tear strip from title competitor Max Verstappen’s helmet getting into the brake hoses of his Ferrari.
The video confirmed Verstappen tore off a visor in the opening stages and the small strip went into the right front brake hose of Leclerc, who was racing directly behind.
That forced Leclerc to stop at an unspecified pit-stop and would then cost him fifth place – the visor got stuck in the duct leading to a sensor failure that caused the Ferrari driver to accelerate in the pit lane. , giving him a 5 second penalty. causing him to be relegated to Fernando Alonso at the end of the race.
Verstappen won the race to open up a seemingly insurmountable 98-point lead over Leclerc with eight races remaining.
“I hope it’s not mine,” Verstappen said after the race, adding that Leclerc had been “super unlucky”.
In the post-race cool-down room, Verstappen was heard telling Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez he was still covered in dust from the first lap, when he took action in the first round to avoid a collision between Lewis Hamilton with Fernando Alonso.
Dust caused Verstappen to tear off a few corners of the visor afterwards.
“It was extremely busy and also a lot of dirt. I teared up tears because I could barely see anything just because the area before, like people just walked on grass, on gravel, but we lived. survived without damage,” Verstappen said.
Information from Reuters contributed to this report.
