Leclerc handed huge Miami GP penalty after battle with Verstappen and Russell

Charles Leclerc has been handed a 20-second post-race time penalty for a last-lap incident at the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.

Leclerc suffered a high-speed spin on the final lap of the Miami race, avoiding a huge accident but still suffering front-left car damage after tapping the Turn 3 wall.

As a result Leclerc lost a podium finish to Oscar Piastri, and he then desperately attempted to fend off Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.

But because he suffered steering arm damage Leclerc cut several corners and pushed the lapped car of Arvid Lindblad out of the way. He also made slight contact with Russell at the hairpin as he lost places to both the Mercedes man and Verstappen at the line.

After the race the FIA race stewards investigated the contact with Russell as well as Leclerc allegedly leaving the track and gaining an advantage. Leclerc was handed a drive-through penalty for the latter, which was converted into a 20-second penalty post-race.

As a result Leclerc drops to down to eighth behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, who nets his best-ever grand prix result as a result.

In his summons, Leclerc explained that his car struggled to turn right after his contact with the wall, leading to him cutting some of Miami’s tighter chicanes, but the stewards argued that amounted to gaining a lasting advantage and punished him given the number of off-track excursions.

The FIA stewards verdict document stated: “Car 16 spun on the last lap at Turn 3 and hit the wall but continued on track. The driver informed us that the car appeared fine save that the car would not negotiate the right-hand corners properly. Given this problem, he was forced to cut chicanes on the way to the chequered flag. We determined that the fact that he had to cut the chicanes (i.e. to leave the track) meant that he gained a lasting advantage by leaving the track in that manner.

“The fact that he had a mechanical issue of some sort did not amount to a justifiable reason. We accordingly impose a Drive Through penalty on Car 16, given the number of times the car left the track and gained an advantage.”

The stewards didn’t take further action against Leclerc’s car allegedly being in an unsafe condition, however.

“We also considered whether there was an additional breach in continuing to drive a car with an obvious and discernible mechanical issue,” the verdict continued. “We determined that there was no evidence of there being an obvious or discernible mechanical issue. We therefore took no further action in relation to that potential infringement.”

There was also no further action against either Leclerc or Russell for making contact at the hairpin on the final lap. The stewards agreed with the assessment of both drivers that it was a “minor racing incident”.

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– The Autosport.com Team