Charles Leclerc retired from the Dutch Grand Prix when he was hit by Andrea Kimi Antonelli shortly after the pair made their second pit stops.
But Leclerc could have avoided the collision had Ferrari not overruled his call not to react to Antonelli’s earlier pit stop.
Leclerc was running fifth when Antonelli made his second pit stop on lap 40. The pair had been separated by just over two seconds.
Once Antonelli pitted, Ferrari knew they likely only had one lap to bring Leclerc in and get him back out ahead before the Mercedes driver’s fresher tyres made that impossible. Leclerc was quick to tell them he didn’t want to react.
When his race engineer Bryan Bozzi told him Antonelli had pitted, Leclerc immediately replied: “Okay, I think we stay.”
“Do you mean to stay out?” Bozzi checked. “Yeah, let’s stay out,” Leclerc replied. “Let’s try.”
Antonelli’s pit stop dropped him behind his team mate George Russell and Alexander Albon to eighth place. With 32 laps still remaining, Leclerc clearly preferred his chances of holding on to the position he’d taken by muscling past Russell earlier on.
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However Bozzi told Leclerc that Ferrari were concerned about the threat from Antonelli and wanted to secure their position ahead of him. “Box, Charles box, we want to cover Antonelli,” he told Leclerc. The call came at the exit of turn 12, leaving little time for further discussion. Leclerc came in.
He rejoined ahead of Antonelli but the Mercedes driver spied an opportunity to pass him at the Hugenholzbocht. Antonelli dived for the inside but as momentum carried him up the steeply-banked corner he was unable to avoid hitting Leclerc, inflicting race-ending damage on the Ferrari.
Afterwards Leclerc reminded the team he hadn’t wanted to pit in the first place. “I think that was unnecessary,” he said. “I mean, we can never know what happened but honestly the tyres felt good.”
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