'Sh** happens': Max Verstappen shows no sympathy towards Charles Leclerc
Sergio Perez moved into second place in the Drivers' championship after Leclerc's latest failure
Max Verstappen showed no sympathy for title rival Charles Leclerc after the Ferrari driver suffered his second engine failure of the season in Baku. The Monegasque driver was leading the Azerbaijan Grand Prix when plumes of smoke started bellowing from the back of his Ferrari.
The Dutch driver cruised to his fifth win of the season to increase his lead in the Drivers' championship to 21 points over teammate Sergio Perez. Leclerc's second DNF in three races saw him fall 34 points behind Verstappen, and 13 points behind the Mexican.
It was Red Bull who were struggling with reliability issues at the start of the campaign, but have turned it around in the last five races. Ferrari are now struggling after seeing both Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz fail to finish the race.
Verstappen had no sympathy for Leclerc after the race, stating "sh** happens" and feels it is an experience that many drivers have faced during their careers. The Dutchman has backed his rival to get over the pain and come back fighting as the season progresses.
"I would always say, s*** happens. That's racing, you know? It happened to me, it happened to many people in the past, unfortunately it's happening to Charles," Verstappen said, as quoted on F1.com.
"You always look at how to improve things – that's what we did at the beginning of the season. You learn from it, you don't like it, you're angry, but we turned it around. You always have to stay on it because something else might happen and you always have to prevent these issues from happening," he added.
Ferrari's reliability has come to the fore in recent races, and Mattia Binotto admitted that a thorough investigation is necessary to get to the bottom of the problem. The Maranello team has now fallen 80 points behind Red Bull in the Constructors' championship.
"Certainly it's a concern," Binotto told Sky F1. "I think we said it even before coming here to Baku. Reliability is always a factor which is a key factor in the battle as [well as] the performance."
"The team will still be focused, work hard, try to address to issues to make us stronger for the future," he added.
