“I tried to push him in the marbles”: Leclerc’s radio sheds light on Verstappen clash

Max Verstappen was infuriated at losing a position to Charles Leclerc at the restart of the Spanish Grand Prix and complained his rival made contact with him.

The stewards looked into the incident and cleared both drivers, noting each had moved towards the other at different points as Leclerc passed the Red Bull.

However Leclerc’s radio messages earlier in the race show this was not the first time during the race he squeezed his rival on the straight. It followed an exchange of radio messages with his race engineer Bryan Bozzi instructing him which line to take on the straight.

Later in the race Bozzi also repeatedly urged Leclerc to perform more “lift-and-coast” at the end of the main straight. Teams often do this to save fuel or reduce running temperatures, but Leclerc was unhappy at the persistent messages he received telling him to back off.

The race turned out well for Leclerc, however, and after taking the chequered flag he reflected positively on the team’s decision to sacrifice its pace in qualifying to have more fresh tyres for the race. “It did pay off,” he said.

Selected Leclerc radio messages from the Spanish Grand Prix

“We are losing time”
“If I go on the right, I’ll have marbles on my tyres”
“I tried to push him as much as I could in the marbles”
“Everyone’s fine?”
“That’s probably the main reason for our s*** pace”
“Max ahead has fitted a hard”
“I know why the last part of the race was poor”

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“We are losing time”

Leclerc started the race behind team mate Lewis Hamilton but was soon on his tail.

He spent five consecutive laps within DRS range of his team mate and was clearly unimpressed at how long Ferrari took to swap their positions. As he pointed out, he had compromised his performance in qualifying to save another set of tyres for the race and could ill afford to waste time behind his team mate.

“If I go on the right, I’ll have marbles on my tyres”

Within the space of three laps, Bozzi gave Leclerc two different instructions on his line to take on the main straight. First he told him to stay left, then he told him to go further to the right.

Leclerc asked the team whether they wanted him to avoid the tyre ‘marbles’ which were beginning to build up off the racing line. Soon afterwards he made his first pit stop, switching from the soft tyres he started the race on to the first of his new sets of mediums.

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“I tried to push him as much as I could in the marbles”

Verstappen made his second pit stop early and fell behind Leclerc. When he came past the Ferrari driver on the main straight, Leclerc pulled to the right, trying to make sure his rival went as far through the marbles as possible. He mentioned this to Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris after the race.

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“Everyone’s fine?”

When Leclerc made his second pit stop he was briefly concerned he had accelerated away too quickly and might have injured a member of his pit crew. Bozzi reassured him all was well.

But Leclerc would have been less happy with the rest of Bozzi’s messages, as the calls to lift and coast became increasingly urgent:

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That’s probably the main reason for our s*** pace

Leclerc was clearly less happy with his pace on his second set of medium tyres compared to the first. He complained about the stiffness of the ride as well as the amount of lifting and coasting the team demanded.

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“Max ahead has fitted a hard”

The Safety Car’s arrival handed Leclerc an opportunity. While he had saved tyres for the race, Verstappen had burned through his, and had to switch to a set of hard tyres for the final stint. Bozzi continued to demand more lift-and-coast, but told Leclerc he didn’t need to do it when he was using DRS.

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“I know why the last part of the race was poor”

When Leclerc pounced on his opportunity to pass Verstappen, the Red Bull driver repaid his favour from earlier, squeezing the Ferrari onto the marbles. As Leclerc drew ahead he moved back towards the cleaner line and the pair briefly touched.

The stewards took a dim view of this, noting it “could potentially have resulted in a major crash”, but decided neither was more to blame than the other.

As soon as Leclerc exited the last corner, Bozzi urged him to lift off once he took the chequered flag. Neither Ferrari driver had been happy with their pace in the final stint, but as he drove back in Leclerc told Bozzi he knew why they hadn’t been competitive at the end.

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2025 Spanish Grand Prix

• “I tried to push him in the marbles”: Leclerc’s radio sheds light on Verstappen clash
• Alonso now has the second-longest win-less streak of any F1 driver
• “The worst it’s ever been”: Hamilton’s front wing headaches during Spanish GP
• Red Bull endured “sobering” weekend after pinning hopes on rule change – Marko
• “Does it matter” if a driver deliberately crashes into a rival? There’s only one answer

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