Charles Leclerc revealed he picked up an injury after crashing twice over the Miami Grand Prix weekend.
The Monegasque secured his best result of the season so far last time out, finishing on the podium in Azerbaijan. From there, he would have hoped to kick on and collect another strong haul of points for Ferrari in Florida.
But it wasn't to be as both he and his team endured a weekend to forget. And Leclerc's woes began on Friday when he became one of the victims of what was proving to be a tricky track which was very stingy when it came to giving good traction.
He was pushing on a hot lap in the second practice session when he suffered a small slide of his back wheels. From there, there was nothing he could do and, despite his best efforts to brake, the front wing of his car ended up buried in a barrier.
To make matters worse, he found the Tec-pro again the following day at the end of qualifying. Pushing hard on one final flying lap while gunning for pole position, his Ferrari span out from underneath him and this time it was the rear of his car which slammed into the protective wall.
Ahead of Sunday's race, he revealed the toll those crashes had taken on his body. "I'm not in the best shape physically today – I have my neck completely blocked, but I'll do everything to make a good race," he said. He was able to complete the race and there is no suggestion Leclerc will be unfit for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in 12 days.
Despite his best efforts, it was an underwhelming race for Ferrari. Carlos Sainz finished fifth while Leclerc could manage only seventh, after being reeled in and overtaken by the charging Lewis Hamilton with just a few laps to go.
"Today there were a lot of problems," said the disgruntled 25-year-old after the race. "Now we'll see what's up with the car. To me, something wasn't right. I say this because of how much the car bounced on high-speed corners, how much I touched the ground. I spoke to Carlos after the race and we agreed that the car is very inconsistent in the race and that it is practically impossible to go to the limit.
"The car is incredibly sensitive to wind, especially when it's as windy as it is today. In one corner you have complete understeer and in the next corner you oversteer. I'm constantly prepared for this. That's strange and we have to check that, because that's never happened before."
