Leclerc on his battle with Norris: “We barely avoided a crash!”

Charles Leclerc believes they narrowly escaped a crash during his final lap battle with Lando Norris.

The last lap of Saturday’s sprint race in Austin saw a fierce fight for position between the Ferrari drivers and Lando Norris. Charles Leclerc, while trying to attack Norris for third place, reported over team radio that the McLaren driver moved under braking.
In his post-sprint race statement, Leclerc said, “I wasn’t expecting him to do that.”

“Maybe it happened in the heat of the moment, but I saw him move under braking. Still, I need to review the footage again.”
“The way he positioned himself on the line seemed borderline, but in the end, this is racing. He wanted to defend his position.”
“We narrowly avoided a crash. We almost collided, but in the end, we didn’t, and he finished the race ahead of me,” he said.