Formula 1: Charles Leclerc winning was no fluke; him taking this long was

Charles Leclerc securing his first two Formula 1 victories in consecutive weekends was no fluke, but the fact that it took him this long to win was.

Just one week after first-year Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc secured the first victory of his Formula 1 career by holding off points leader Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport from the pole position in the Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, he doubled his career win total.

Leclerc took the pole position for the Italian Grand Prix at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, and he again held off a challenge from Hamilton. He also held off a separate challenge from Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas to go on to win the race.

In addition to doubling his career win total, he also doubled the win total produced by Kimi Raikkonen, who Leclerc replaced at Ferrari ahead of the 2019 season, from the 2014 season through the 2018 season.

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But the 21-year-old Monegasque winning these two races, which were two races in which Ferrari looked like they would excel on paper, was no fluke.

What was a fluke, however, was his win drought leading up to this two-race winning streak.

Entering the Belgian Grand Prix, the 13th of 21 races on the 2019 schedule, Leclerc should have been at least a two-time Grand Prix winner. An engine failure late in the Bahrain Grand Prix, which he dominated from the pole position, turned a 10-second victory into a third place finish, and a poor tire strategy in the Austrian Grand Prix, which he also dominated from the pole position, turned a 15-second gap over Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen into a second place finish behind Verstappen.

Leclerc had led 118 laps through the season’s first 12 races, including 41 in the Bahrain Grand Prix and 58 in the Austrian Grand Prix. Only Hamilton, who won eight of these 12 races, had led more with 352 laps led.

Leclerc was due, and when he struck, he struck big.

In the 44-lap Belgian Grand Prix around the 19-turn, 4.352-mile (7.004-kilometer) Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps road course in Stavelot, Belgium, Leclerc led all but six laps. In the 53-lap Italian Grand Prix around the 11-turn, 3.600-mile (5.794-kilometer) Autodromo Nazionale Monza road course in Monza, Italy, he led all but eight laps.

Now with 201 laps led this season, including 83 of the last 97, Leclerc has led almost twice as many laps as the driver whose laps led total ranks third (Bottas – 111), and he has led nearly as many laps as the third and fourth place drivers, Bottas and Verstappen, combined (211).

The fact that his win total is only one-quarter of what Hamilton’s is, is the real fluke, not the fact that he won two consecutive races after opening his career with 33 starts, including 12 with the Prancing Horse, and no victories.

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Charles Leclerc was due for his first career Formula 1 victory, and when he got it, he didn’t stop there. Now with two consecutive victories, how much more will he accomplish throughout the final seven races of the 2019 season? While Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and Autodromo Nazionale Monza are two of Ferrari’s best tracks, Leclerc’s laps led total throughout the entire year suggests that he may not be done winning just yet in 2019.

And it wouldn’t be a fluke if that assumption is proven correct.

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