Canadian rapper Drake placed a $300,000 bet on Charles Leclerc to win last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, but was let down by a reliability failure on the Ferrari.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, Drake, champagnepapi on Instagram, posted a screenshot of the bet on his story, revealing that he had placed the enormous sum of money on Leclerc winning in Barcelona.
“First F1 bet, let’s see how it goes,” was the caption.
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The estimated payout was 2.5 times the sum he placed on it, meaning that he stood to walk away from the bet with $750,000 if the Monegasque won.
However, Leclerc began to grind to a halt with just under 30 laps completed, spelling heartbreak for the 24-year-old having dominated the afternoon.
Ferrari confirmed that the Turbo and the MGU-H in the back of the F1-75 had picked up too much damage to be used again, and the now former championship leader revealed that he had no indication of what was about to happen.
“I don’t know anything more than what happened basically,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“I had no indications before, and it just broke and then I lost power completely.
“It’s a shame, in those moments I believe that there is nothing else I can do apart from looking at the positives and there are plenty this weekend.
“There is the qualifying pace, the race pace and most importantly the tyre management, that has been a weakness in the last two races.
“I think we definitely found something this weekend on that, so it gives me the confidence for the rest of the season but on the other hand we will look at this issue and we cannot afford for this to happen many times during the season.
“So we need to find the problem.”
Max Verstappen’s victory now puts him six points ahead of Leclerc in the Drivers’ Championship, but the pace of the Ferrari seemed quicker than that of Red Bull for the first time in three races, giving him plenty of optimism heading into his home race in Monaco this weekend.
“I think what is the most important is the overall performance and performance-wise we are performing very well,” added the four-time race winner.
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“So, I can’t wait to go at home next week and hopefully we’ll have a great result.”
Drake’s unsuccessful gamble comes after he placed a very ambitious $550,000 on Justin Gaethje to beat Lightweight champion Charles Oliveira at UFC 274, but the Brazilian defeated the 33-year-old in the opening round.