Charles Leclerc’s incredible start in last weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix helped Ferrari to keep their championship hopes alive until the final lap of the season.
Taking advantage of a lively first lap ahead of him, Leclerc leapt 11 places from 19th on the grid. By vaulting to eighth place at the start, he put himself on course to finish third behind team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr.
Lando Norris’s victory in the race meant Ferrari’s constructors’ championship hopes were dashed. But they pushed McLaren much harder than seemed likely when the field lined up with two MCL38s on the front row and Leclerc’s Ferrari at the opposite end of the grid.
“I knew I had to be very aggressive,” said Leclerc after the race. “I knew that in lap one, I had to take all the risks possible in order to gain as many places as possible.”
Collisions involving the two Red Bull drivers – Max Verstappen spun Oscar Piastri while Sergio Perez was hit by Valtteri Bottas – undoubtedly helped Leclerc on his way. However he also had to rely on his skills to pick off most of the others.
Leclerc out-dragged Alexander Albon away from the line and dodged Yuki Tsunoda who was slow to get away in his RB. He passed Jack Doohan into turn one, so he had already made up three places before passing Verstappen and Piastri following their turn one clash. He also gained a place from Zhou Guanyu who took to the run-off at turn one.
Having started on the medium tyre compound, Leclerc was able to out-drag Lewis Hamilton’s hard-tyred Mercedes through turn three. He then drove around the outside of Lance Stroll at turn five. He was up to 11th as he reached the back straight.
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Approaching turn six, Leclerc took the outside line and out-braked Liam Lawson. He was already working his way around the outside of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez when the pair made contact. Leclerc emerged from the corner in eighth place, and gave a “woohoo” in delight on his radio when race engineer Bryan Bozzi informed him of his progress.
It’s extremely rare for an F1 driver to make a double-digit place gain in a single lap. Leclerc’s start was by far the best of any other driver this year.
Technically, one driver made up 11 places at the start last year, but it can’t be considered the same as Leclerc’s feat. Kevin Magnussen lined up in the pits at the start of the Austrian Grand Prix and was officially classified in ninth place at the end of lap one. However the Safety Car was deployed as the lap ended and Magnussen pitted, which meant he reached the timing line before many drivers who had been ahead of him on the track when he entered the pits.
There has only been one other race where any drivers have gained 10 places or more on the first lap since F1 widened cars to two metres in 2017. This occured at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, where multiple drivers crashed at the first corner.
On that occasion three drivers made up more than 10 places. Carlos Sainz Jnr (Leclerc’s team mate) and Tsunoda gained 11 each, while Williams driver Nicholas Latifi gained 12.
Latifi was aided by a double crash at the first corner on a damp track. Valtteri Bottas’s Mercedes ran into the back of Lando Norris, causing the pair to hit the Red Bull drivers. Further back, Lance Stroll drove into Leclerc, who was knocked into Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren.
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While that drama unfolded, Latifi got past his team mate George Russell and rose from 19th to sixth as a result. With Antonio Giovinazzi having pitted before the start to change tyres, the Williams driver had gained 12 places.
That proved incredibly important, as he went on to finish seventh, delivering Williams’ first points for two years. It also proved the best result of his career, and after he was dropped by the team at the end of the following year he quit motor racing entirely.
For Leclerc, his first-lap efforts undid the effects of the 10-place grid penalty he received for a power unit parts change, and helped make up for a poor qualifying session in which he was eliminated in Q2. Even if he qualified where he could have done, he doubted it would have made any difference to Ferrari’s championship situation.
“I think P4 [in qualifying] was probably the best, which would have been P14 or P15. Then you never know what happens by starting P15 – [would] we have had [gained] 11 positions? I think it’s a long shot to say that.
“All in all, I think my first lap recovered basically everything that we’ve [lost] since the beginning of the weekend. So I don’t have any regrets.”
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