Leclerc has lead, Verstappen momentum before Spanish GP

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — 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.

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

“It’s not a surprise that we may have a package in Barcelona, which will be important for us,” Binotto said. “I hope the package we are introducing is working as expected and in that case, it can be a good boost in order to try and catch up the current gap we’ve got to the Red Bull.”

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.

When Verstappen's car has not failed him, he has managed to get the better of