Leclerc hit with health scare ahead of Abu Dhabi title-decider

Charles Leclerc has revealed he came down with a bout of food poisoning ahead of the F1 title-deciding weekend in Abu Dhabi.

The Ferrari driver was stricken on Thursday evening and woke up on Friday feeling ill as the team prepared for the final race where it must out-score McLaren by 21 points if it wins at Yas Marina or by 22 if it does not in order to secure the title. 

The hopes have taken a dent after Ferrari fitted a third energy store to Leclerc’s car, triggering an automatic 10-place grid drop, meaning he will start 11th at best. 

“It makes our weekend more difficult, it all started unfortunately last night where I got food poisoning and couldn’t sleep much of the night, I’m so tired and just want to sleep,”  he explained.

“So it wasn’t easy this morning, I felt like I didn’t want to drive, but obviously the huge motivation of the day was doing FP1 with my younger brother [Arthur] – this was a dream come true for both of us and the family that travelled all the way from Monaco. 

“It was very emotional, I had to put the helmet on early because I was emotional, and that is where everything started to go wrong.

“I feel a little bit better tonight, I’ll have a good night’s sleep and come back tomorrow with a battery full re-charged, and I’m not trying to play a game with the words!

“Hopefully, we’ll have a great [Saturday] and an amazing recovery on Sunday.”