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Formula 1: Is this finally Charles Leclerc’s weekend?

By Asher Fair

SPA, BELGIUM - AUGUST 31: Pole position qualifier Charles Leclerc of Monaco and Ferrari celebrates in parc ferme during qualifying for the F1 Grand Prix of Belgium at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on August 31, 2019 in Spa, Belgium. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
SPA, BELGIUM - AUGUST 31: Pole position qualifier Charles Leclerc of Monaco and Ferrari celebrates in parc ferme during qualifying for the F1 Grand Prix of Belgium at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on August 31, 2019 in Spa, Belgium. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) /
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Charles Leclerc has come very close to earning the first victory of his Formula 1 career multiple times. Will he finally do it in the Belgian Grand Prix?

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport teammates Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are the only two drivers who have taken more pole positions than Charles Leclerc in his first Formula 1 season driving for Scuderia Ferrari.

Hamilton, who has a massive lead in the driver standings with eight victories in the first 12 races of the 21-race 2019 season, is the only driver who has led more laps than Leclerc has so far this season.

Yet Leclerc is still winless.

The 21-year-old Monegasque driver has, however, come close to winning on multiple occasions this season, most notably in the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Austrian Grand Prix.

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Leclerc took his first career pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix, and he dominated the race. But what was a 10-second lead became a third place finish as a result of a late engine failure, and it was Hamilton who won the race ahead of Bottas in second.

Leclerc took his second career pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix, and he dominated this race as well. But after Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen has a terrible start from the front row and fell more than 15 seconds behind Leclerc, he reeled him in and took the lead with under three laps remaining before going on to win. Leclerc settled for a career-high second place finish.

Will Leclerc finally break through with his first career victory in today’s Belgian Grand Prix?

Leclerc has been the dominant driver so far this weekend. After finishing in second place behind teammate Sebastian Vettel in the first practice session, he topped the speed charts in the second and third practice sessions. Ferrari recorded 1-2 finishes in all three sessions.

He then went on to take the pole position for this 44-lap race around the 19-turn, 4.352-mile (7.004-kilometer) Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps road course in Stavelot, Belgium, and he did it in dominant fashion, holding off Vettel by a whopping 0.748 seconds, as Ferrari continued their dominant weekend by securing a front row lockout.

Provided that Ferrari don’t make any huge strategy blunders and Leclerc’s car doesn’t experience any mechanical failures, it is going to be hard to stop him today. But this is a huge “if” considering how the team’s season has gone thus far; there are several reasons why they still haven’t won a race since last October, and these are just a few of them.

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Will Charles Leclerc be a Formula 1 race winner upon the conclusion of the Belgian Grand Prix? Tune in to ESPN2 at 9:05 a.m. ET later this morning for the live broadcast of this race from Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

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