Leclerc looking in rear-view mirror

Charles Leclerc has the lead. Max Verstappen has the momentum.

The Formula One defending 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.

“We are hunted for now. I quite like this position, to be honest, because it means that you are doing something right,” Leclerc said. “But it is also true that it’s two races that the gap is slowly closing down ... I just want to be the most competitive out there, and at the moment it seems that Red Bull has the upper hand in the races.”

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

Leclerc started the season with a victory in Bahrain, leading a onetwo finish with Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz. After Verstappen levelled 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 46point lead Leclerc had going into the Italian GP.

Verstappen trails Leclerc despite leading him in victories (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 Leclerc, a rival of his since the days they drove go-karts as youngsters.

“I like the position I’m in at the moment, knowing that the car is quick,” Verstappen said.

Hamilton has won the Spanish GP six times, including each of the last five years.

But given Mercedes’ embarrassing inability to even keep pace with Ferrari and Red Bull, Hamilton’s likely goal this weekend is just getting ahead of his upstart teammate. George Russell, 13 years Hamilton’s junior, has so far outperformed the seven-time champion with 59 points to Hamilton’s 36.