Jolyon Palmer pinpoints the moment Charles Leclerc’s race was ‘undone’ at the British Grand Prix

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Charles Leclerc had a difficult race in the British Grand Prix having finished in 14th place, second-to-last from Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda.

Leclerc had two skirmishes with Carlos Sainz during the race, the first at The Loop section of the track where the Williams driver felt he committed a “reckless” move.

They also made contact at Stowe, which significantly impacted the rest of Sainz’s race as he battled to get into the points-paying positions.

Drivers were battling changing conditions and the Ferrari was a particularly hard car to drive, with Lewis Hamilton claiming that his Ferrari was “so hard to drive” on the wet track.

Discussing Leclerc’s race on F1 TV, former driver Jolyon Palmer believes there was one moment that caused his whole race to unravel.

Jolyon Palmer on the moment Charles Leclerc’s race was ‘undone’

Leclerc was one of five drivers who pitted during the formation lap for slick tyres, largely because the track had started to dry out from the earlier rain.

This turned out to be the wrong decision as an early Virtual Safety Car prolonged the conditions before another shower hit, forcing those who started on slicks to pit for Intermediate tyres.

“Lewis got himself back up to fourth and it wasn’t the cleanest race, but he made the right calls at the right time. Charles was undone initially by that formation lap pit stop and then it just kept going away from him,” said Palmer.

“Overtaking was difficult, he was stuck behind Kimi Antonelli, I liked the efforts of barging his way past the two Williams. If you’ve got no DRS and a chance to make a move you need to go aggressive. But undone by that first pit stop.”

Charles Leclerc suffers worst weekend so far in 2025

The British Grand Prix was comfortably one of Leclerc’s worst of the 2025 season so far, even though he showed decent pace in practice.

Leclerc was in the hunt for the pole, but he made a critical mistake on his final lap in Q3, which effectively cost him a front row start and caused him to be out-qualified by Hamilton.

When he made the call to come in for slick tyres at the start of the race, it didn’t work out, and he lost too much time behind the Williams of Alex Albon.

Scrappy overtakes on Sainz capped off a dismal performance for Leclerc, while Ferrari will be happy that they at least outscored Mercedes in their Constructors’ battle for second.