It could have been so different for championship leader and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc at Imola. Leclerc was running P3 with just a few laps left in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. But he made a costly mistake at the Variante Alta chicane and hit the curbs too hard, which slid his car into the wall.

It was really surprising to see him make such a mistake at a corner where he had been fast throughout the weekend. The Ferrari driver mentioned he got a bit too greedy while pushing behind Sergio Perez. The curbs proved detrimental to his race as he damaged his car and had to pit.

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But racing driver Scott Mansell explained on his YouTube channel how Leclerc made the mistake. He revealed Charles took a little too much of the curb and wanted to cut the apex fine to gain an advantage over Perez. Interestingly, Ferrari have been so good in the slow corners and on the curbs this season. If he had been successful, he might have gotten DRS on Perez on that lap. Instead, he damaged his front wing and had to pit.

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc rues his costly mistake in Imola

Although in the end, Charles lost a mere 7 points and came out of the crash to finish in P6, in the context of the whole championship, it could prove costly in the long run. Leclerc blamed himself for pushing too hard and being too greedy on the track to gain an advantage.

“It is a big shame. Whatever happened before the spin, these are details and it’s part of racing, but I believe that the spin shouldn’t have happened today. P3 was the best I could do; we didn’t have the pace for much more,” said Leclerc.

“And I was too greedy, and I paid the price for it and lost seven potential points, compared to the third place I was before, so it is a shame,” said Charles.

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We all know that the Monegasque driver is a bit too hard on himself when he makes a mistake. But hopefully this time he won’t criticize himself too much, as he’s still leading the championship.

He and Ferrari will look to bounce back at Miami in a couple of weeks to get the momentum back from Red Bull. They finally turned it into a two-way battle in the championship.