(Motorsports news) In the season finale, Mercedes and Ferrari’s battle for second place in the constructors’ championship came down to the very last minute. In an eventual futile attempt to stop Mercedes, Leclerc gave way to a penalized Sergio Perez in an attempt to keep George Russell off the podium. Leclerc intended for Perez to pass and create a lead so that Russell, who was running in fourth place at the time, would be far enough behind to avoid moving up to third place.

Perez was disadvantaged by five seconds for tagging Lando Norris. Wolff, the boss of Mercedes Motorsport, commended “sportsman” Leclerc for stopping short of aggressively delaying Russell. “When you saw Ferrari’s performances in the last few races, we came into this weekend a little bit on the back foot,” the Austrian stated. “We have two guys fighting up front, and George’s driving was excellent—he clearly managed the spaces towards the finish.

“The fight with Ferrari is a formidable fight between these two great brands, a team that we respect a lot, and Charles drove like a real sportsman at the end.” Wolff admitted that Perez had not entered Mercedes’ strategy until the very end, but Leclerc had demonstrated his “character” by supporting Russell without using any dubious methods.

Wolff went on, “Perez wasn’t really on the radar for quite some time.” We thought just of ourselves: ‘Let’s extract the fastest race for George.'” Then we realized that we needed to get to Perez in less than five seconds. However, Leclerc was leading so comfortably that we didn’t think he could close these distances and maybe keep us behind. He had the opportunity to apply the handbrake in the final sector, but he chose not to. That, in my opinion, demonstrates a driver’s character.”

Starting a second time, Leclerc said that he had attempted to use DRS and tow to help Perez get a head start on the Mercedes W14 that was pursuing him before giving the Red Bull driver the lead on the track. The Ferrari driver said, “I decided quite a few laps before, as soon as I was aware of the five-second penalty. “After that, I kept asking about the difference between George and Checo.

I knew Checo was behind me and that his best opportunity was to get the DRS from me and attempt to distance himself as much as possible from George when they informed me that Checo had passed George. “I informed my engineer of my proposal, knowing that we had had a lengthy conversation together. However, it didn’t succeed.”

Also read: In 2024, Ferrari must take advantage of additional Formula One opportunities: Vasseur