Intense challenge
The Miami Sprint race offered great duels and entertainment, but also quite a few sparks, on and off the track. In particular, the very ‘tricolor’ flavored challenge between Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli stood out. The Ferrari driver overtook the young Bolognese driver at the start and then successfully defended his position in the first phase of the Sprint, resisting some very aggressive overtaking attempts by the World Championship leader.
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Leclerc’s venomous team radio
On a couple of occasions Leclerc and Antonelli came close to contact and the Monegasque did not at all appreciate the way the Mercedes driver conducted the battle, judging it unfair. At one point the #16 red opened up via radio with his engineer Bryan Bozzi to complain about Antonelli’s behavior: “Kimi is… really bad in wheel-to-wheel duels. He moved under braking, it’s incredible. We will end up crashing,” Leclerc’s sharp comment.
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The duel then cooled down in the second half of the Sprint, when Leclerc gained a safety margin over his rival, managing to distance him and instead going after – ultimately unsuccessfully – Oscar Piastri’s McLaren. It must be said that today’s was not the first ‘verbal’ duel between Leclerc and Antonelli. At Interlagos last year, Leclerc in post-race interviews blamed Antonelli for causing an incident in turn 1 that caused the Monegasque to retire; in that case, however, the race direction penalized Piastri, who was also involved in the three-car contact.
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