FIA ruined Imola spectacle with bizarre delay that hurt Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc
Lewis #Lewis
The same situation arose for Leclerc further up the grid in his battle with Sergio Perez for second. The Ferrari driver had been struggling to keep up with Perez until the Mexican made a mistake at the final corner, allowing Leclerc to push within DRS range.
But that moment came when DRS was inactive, leaving Leclerc with little option but to back off into the first corner. That proved to be his best chance and then his race was practically over after a mistake at Rivazza, damaging his front wing and forced to pit which dropped him down to ninth.
Both Leclerc and Hamilton had other issues which clearly hampered their race, but the delay in activating DRS certainly played a part. And it’s not been made immediately clear by the FIA why exactly they waited so long to open the DRS window.