‘THE overtake’: Jeremy Clarkson hails Leclerc’s Zandvoort lunge and reaches for Villeneuve
Jeremy Clarkson doesn’t hand out capital letters lightly. But Charles Leclerc’s audacious move on George Russell at Zandvoort tore one straight out of his thesaurus, the broadcaster declaring it “THE overtake” of the 2025 Formula 1 season and likening the Ferrari driver to Gilles Villeneuve.
Leclerc’s attack came on Lap 32 at the Hans Ernst chicane, where overtakes are usually nibble-and-hope affairs. This was neither. He braked late, forced himself alongside Russell’s Mercedes on the right-hand kink into Turn 11 and finished the job at the left-hander, the pair kissing wheels as Leclerc muscled through.
The stewards had a look — they always do when bodywork rubs in tight quarters — and ultimately filed it under “racing incident.” Their report noted the evidence was inconclusive on whether Leclerc’s Ferrari left the track at Turn 12, and both drivers agreed there was no need for penalties. Common sense, for once, got the nod.
Clarkson, watching like the rest of us, fired off his verdict in real time. “LeClerc. Holy s**t. That’s proper racing,” he posted, spelling be damned. Asked if it was the overtake of the season: “THE overtake.” Then came the nod to Ferrari lore: “Exactly. That was pure Giles [sic]. So cool.”
The Villeneuve comparison might sound lofty, but in spirit it fits. Leclerc didn’t wait for a DRS coupon. He made a decision, put his car where only the committed dare, and lived with the outcome. It was the kind of move that jerks you upright on the sofa.
The sting, inevitably, followed. Leclerc retired 20 laps later after contact with Andrea Kimi Antonelli at the banked Turn 3. The Mercedes rookie sent a bold one and clipped Leclerc’s rear-left, ending the Ferrari’s afternoon. Clarkson’s take was less poetic: “Antonelli is a teenager.”
Leclerc kept his cool when the microphones arrived. He conceded the Russell pass was “on the limit” but made it clear that’s the line he intends to walk.
“It was aggressive, but we’re fighting for a place in the championship for the constructors’ especially,” he said. “For the driver standings, I don’t really care, so I will always be aggressive like that. It was on the limit, but I knew I wouldn’t have many opportunities after that.”
On the Antonelli clash, he resisted the easy narrative. “It’s a mistake from Kimi,” Leclerc said. “You’ve got to be very aggressive on a track like this to overtake, which I think he tried. Maybe it was a bit too much and he went on to touch my rear left and that was the end of my race. I wouldn’t describe it as a rookie mistake. It’s just a mistake, which can happen the first year or the fifth year.”
There’s a larger thread in all this. Ferrari need every punch landed in a constructors’ fight that’s turned relentlessly attritional. Aggression without chaos is the currency. Leclerc, a decade into top-level scrutiny, still finds ways to change the air in a race with one unblinking decision. That counts.
For Mercedes, there’s a different kind of calculus. Russell absorbed the Leclerc hit with minimal drama, which is what you want from your spearhead. Antonelli’s rough edges are no surprise — every big talent introduces himself with a scar or two — but the cost of those moments matters when the margins are tiny.
As for Clarkson’s Villeneuve line, it’s not about the exact geometry of the move. Gilles built a legend on resolve, trust in the car’s front end, and an occasional disregard for convention. Leclerc’s chicane dive wasn’t reckless; it was a driver reading a race and choosing action over waiting for the script. That’s what sticks.
No points for style, sadly. The stewards didn’t take any away, and fate didn’t give any back. But for a few corners in Zandvoort’s late-afternoon haze, Leclerc lit the place up. If you were looking for the season’s defining pass, you could do worse than follow Clarkson’s caps lock.
