Charles Leclerc web ST

Picture Credit: Twitter

For the third time in the season, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was forced to retire after leading the race in French Grand Prix on Sunday. The Ferrari racer accepted his mistake which led to his car crash and Red Bulls' Max Verstappen winning the race.

After crashing out of the race, Leclerc trails Verstappen in the Formula 1 title race with 233 points to 170. The Monégasque driver led the race for 18 laps before crashing at the high-speed Le Beausset corner. The driver has admitted his mistake that cost him and his team 25 points in the title race.

Leclerc said, "A mistake, my mistake. I think I am performing at the highest level of my career, but if I keep doing these mistakes then it is pointless to perform at a very high level. I am losing too many points.

"I think seven at Imola, 25 here -- because honestly we probably were the strongest car on track today. So, if we lose the championship by 32 points at the end of the season, I will know where they are coming from. It's unacceptable. I just need to get on top of those things."

"I go through the same process all the time, try to analyse everything and today the snap was a bit of a weird one. So, I'll look into the data and try to understand if there is anything that I do not know yet, but to me it is a mistake and that's it."

After winning the race, Verstappen was sympathetic to Leclerc and said, "I'm sorry for Charles, but it is easy to make a mistake. It can just happen. I'm sure we will have tough weekends to come, too. Of course, it was unlucky for Charles and I hope he's ok. From there onwards, I just did my race, looked after the tyres because here, with the pit lane being so long, you couldn't do another stop."

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton came second in the French GP while his teammate George Russell followed him in third place making it a second and third finish for the British F1 group.