Leclerc 'Fastest Out There At The Moment' According To Martin Brundle

Thursday, 30 November 2023 at 04:00

Former F1 driver and Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle recently said Charles Leclerc is the fastest driver in the sport at the moment.

The four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel has described Charles Leclerc as the most talented driver he met in 15 years of his Formula One career.

Leclerc proved his talent and raw speed multiple times throughout this season, but mainly towards the end when he qualified in the top 2 in all of the last five races of the season despite not having the fastest car on every occasion.

In Abu Dhabi, Leclerc put together another amazing final qualifying lap, which put him on the front row alongside the Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen. Martin Brundle wrote in his column for Sky Sports:

"Charles Leclerc has shown his blistering speed on many a qualifying lap, you could argue that he's the fastest out there at the moment."

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On the other hand, the Ferrari driver is the holder of an unfortunate record for the most pole positions not followed up by a race win as it typically gets snatched away from him.

"But he's failed to convert his last 12 pole positions into victories largely because of Mr M Verstappen, and partly due to lack of race pace, incidents, and sub-optimal strategies."

In Abu Dhabi, however, Leclerc's primary mission was not to win the race but to ensure second place in the Constructors' Championship for his team.

The 26-year-old showed great racing IQ when he realized towards the end of the race he needed to help Perez with five five-second penalty to finish at least five seconds ahead of George Russell. Brundle said:

"I'm reliably informed that it was indeed Leclerc generating much of this tactic, and so he let Perez past into second place on the road."

In the end, Leclerc's strategy wasn't enough to secure second place in the Championship for his team. However, he showed he is not only one of the fastest drivers ever but also a true team player.