IT'S 6AM ON THE FRIDAY OF THE MONACO Grand Prix weekend. There's a good chance the real excitement will be over tomorrow afternoon once Q3 is complete. The Monaco GP is an amazing event but more often than not, a horrible motor race. But that doesn't matter, because the build-up is about to begin in earnest to Charles Leclerc's final, dazzling qualifying lap. Maybe he'll stick it on pole. Maybe he'll stick it into the wall. Maybe... no, that's about the only two possibilities I foresee right now. The man is an artist and heroically committed. Even the relentless talent of Max Verstappen doesn't conjure the same excitement as Ferrari's star man when he's shooting for pole on the streets of Monaco.
Or anywhere else for that matter. Is Charles quicker than Max? It's impossible to say. He's certainly not as consistent, he doesn't have the metronomic and devastating race pace that must be so demoralising to try to compete against, nor is he as ruthless in wheel-to-wheel situations. Yet Leclerc has something magical and intangible.
You just can't keep your eyes away from his Ferrari being danced, dragged, bullied, teased and caressed all at once until it delivers a lap time far beyond what it has any right to record. There's something so raw about the car's body language.
This story is from the July 2023 edition of Evo UK.
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This story is from the July 2023 edition of Evo UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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