Spanish GP preview | Verstappen looks to use momentum to catch up with Leclerc

Max Verstappen’s consecutive wins has cut Charles Leclerc lead in the Formula One drivers standings, making the Spanish Grand Prix another exciting contest

Charles Leclerc has the lead. Max Verstappen has the momentum. The defending Formula One champion has chipped away at Leclerc’s advantage by stringing together consecutive victories, reducing the difference to 19 points ahead of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.

The sixth event of the season promises to be yet another episode of the Red Bull vs Ferrari rivalry that has completely eclipsed Lewis Hamilton’s struggling Mercedes.

“We are hunted for now. I quite like this position to be honest, because it means that you are doing something right," Leclerc said. “But it is also true that it’s two races that the gap is slowly closing down.... I just want to be the most competitive out there. And at the moment, it seems that Red Bull has the upper hand in the races.”

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has hinted that his engineers will use the two weeks between races to introduce important upgrades.

Leclerc started the season with a victory in Bahrain, leading a 1-2 finish with Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz. After Verstappen leveled it with a win in Saudi Arabia, Leclerc breezed to a dominant performance in Australia and Ferrari had reason to finally believe it had returned to the top.

But back-to-back victories by Verstappen—with Red Bull humbling Ferrari in front of its home fans in Italy before adding a win in Miami—have more than halved the 46-point lead Leclerc had going into the Italian GP.

Verstappen trails Leclerc despite leading him in victories—with three to Leclerc’s two—because he failed to finish both in Bahrain and Australia because of car trouble. Leclerc, meanwhile, has finished runner-up two times, with his worst result being a sixth-place finish in Italy.