Charles Leclerc out of Azerbaijan GP as Ferrari goes up in plumes of smoke

Charles Leclerc has been forced to retire from the Azerbaijan Grand prix as his car went up in plumes of smoke. The Ferrari man was leading the race after an excellent strategy before his car failed. 

The Monegasque was driving down the front straight before a mechanical failure which saw smoke coming from the back of his car. It’s Leclerc’s second retirement in three races as the team’s reliability issues continue.

Leclerc said the issue was an engine failure to his race engineer on team radio. The retirement is a major dent in Leclerc’s championship chances after a brilliant strategy call put him in the race lead.

It means he could have thrown away 25 points and a chance to cut the deficit between him and Verstappen to just one point. The Ferrari man stopped under a virtual safety car for the hard tyres to get ahead of the Red Bull pair. 

It was predicted he would switch to medium tyres at the end of the race to close in on Sergio Perez and Verstappen.