Why Wolff wove Leclerc’s eulogy in Abu Dhabi

Perez had received a five-second penalty for his collision with McLaren’s Lando Norris and moved up in the Abu Dhabi GP standings after his second pit stop. The Mexican managed to overtake Russell for 3rd, but with the 5” penalty he had to build a corresponding lead over the Mercedes Englishman to keep him when the penalty was imposed after the end of the race.

Since Leclerc saw that with Russell’s victory in third place Ferrari would lose the battle with Mercedes for second place in the constructors’ championship, he also allowed Perez to move up to second place in the race to make it easier for the Mexican to get the 5′ open. ‘ gap he needed from Russell.

The Monegasque Ferrari driver could then have slowed down to allow the Englishman to catch up, and stayed in front of him to keep him at a slower pace and ensure that Russell’s gap to Perez increased to over 5 minutes. But he did not do it.

However, RBR director Christian Horner would: “That was the logical decision Ferrari”, said the Brit, “But they did half the job! They let Czeko through, but – as Czeko himself proved at this point in the track before – you can keep someone behind you there. Charles had to hold Russell back a little longer to deny him that extra second.

However, Toto Wolff recognized Leclerc’s choice. “The fight with Ferrari It’s a tough battle between two great teams, a team we respect very much, and Charles rode with real sportsmanship at the end.”said the Austrian.

And then he declared about this battle: “I think if you look at their performances, we started these three days with a little delay Ferrari in the last games. For various reasons it is very difficult to get the car to the optimal performance point, we saw that with Carlos [Σάινθ] who was never there for the whole three days, and neither was Lewis [Χάμιλτον].

On the other hand, we had two riders fighting at the front and I think George rode brilliantly today as he also controlled the gaps at the end. Perez wasn’t on the radar for a long time. I mean, we knew they probably wouldn’t be able to make a pit stop if they were ahead of us, and then it came out [από τα πιτς] 10-11 seconds behind us.

At that moment we were just focused on ourselves and said, “Let’s get the most out of George’s race,” always keeping in mind that we needed to take care of our tires. We knew we had to stay within 5 feet of Perez, but Leclerc was so far ahead that we felt we couldn’t control those gaps to stop us.”Wolf concluded.