Max Verstappen's visor tear-off ending up in Charles LeClerc's brake duct during the Belgian Grand Prix

JTithers

Aug 29

Lap 1 in Belgium, and after passing the terminally damaged Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen pulls a Mario Kart banana peel-esque move on Charles LeClerc without realising it, as his visor tear-off ends up in LeClerc's brake duct directly behind him:

**As pointed out by /u/Dark_cheese on /r/formula1**

Somehow that was only the second visor tear-off incident between Verstappen and LeClerc in 2022, because back in Jeddah, Max had one of Charles' tear-offs fly into his eyeline during the Grand Prix, which he eventually managed to remove after 2 laps before catching the Ferrari to win the race.

Thanks to that incident, we get another Ferrari butterfly effect:

LeClerc has to pit under the Safety Car to have the tear-off removed from his now overheating brake duct, dropping him to the rear and out of sync with the field, virtually ending his podium chances without another yellow flag in the race, while Verstappen proceeds to do what Bruce McLaren did back in 1959-60 and win consecutive races starting from outside the Top 10.

Then, with 5th place safe with 2 laps to go, Ferrari and LeClerc in their famous finite wisdom, decide to try and take the fastest lap from Verstappen, but fail to realise LeClerc doesn't have enough of a gap back to Fernando Alonso in 6th...

Alonso takes 5th on the road on the run down to Eau Rouge before being re-passed by LeClerc on the last lap, which meant LeClerc with Alonso up his arse had no hope of getting the Fastest Lap, which he ultimately missed by 0.6s despite having DRS down the Kemmel Straight (Such was Verstappen's pace compared to everyone).

And to cap off this latest Ferrari work of art, LeClerc is docked 5 seconds for speeding in the pitlane by 1km/h, potentially caused by a damaged sensor due to the tear-off incident, dropping him to 6th behind Alonso.

So, in the process of going for a fastest lap, LeClerc went 5.6 seconds slower, and needlessly lost an extra 2 points.

I don't think you could sum up Charles Leclerc's season more than finding out he sped in the pit lane by 1km/h

— Matt Gallagher (@MattyWTF1) August 28, 2022

And I get the feeling Fernando was talking from experience when he said this:

| Fernando Alonso on Ferrari:

"When Charles came to box for fastest lap, I was quite surprised. Ferrari always does strange strategies."

*laughs*

— Ferrari News (@FanaticsFerrari) August 28, 2022