Max Verstappen spins after Charles Leclerc collision at Suzuka start

Japanese GP

Verstappen spins after Leclerc collision at Suzuka start

Crazy start in Japan!

Matthew Scott

Sunday 13 October 2019 07:23

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Max Verstappen's hopes of delivering a big result at the Japanese GP for Honda took a serious blow as he collided with Charles Leclerc on the opening lap.

The pair made contact going through the esses, spinning Verstappen and costing Leclerc parts of his front wing.

The Monegasque continued for a number of laps, despite shedding carbon fibre across the track, but eventually pitted after four tours of Suzuka.

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Stewards initially deemed the incident not worthy of an investigation. When that news was relayed to Verstappen he simply replied: "What?!"

However, after replays were aired, they opted to take another look at the incident, with Leclerc the most likely guilty party.

More troubling for Ferrari was Sebastian Vettel facing a likely penalty for jumping the start lights, with his poor launch seeing him drop to second behind Valtteri Bottas.

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