No further action taken on Leclerc-Verstappen incident at F1 Spanish GP

The FIA race stewards have taken no further action against Charles Leclerc for making contact with Max Verstappen in Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix – meaning the Ferrari driver has retained his podium position.

On a lap 61 safety car restart, Verstappen lost momentum with a huge oversteer moment out of the final corner as he tried to get his hard tyres up to speed against drivers around him on softer rubber.

That opened the door for Leclerc to pull alongside and overtake Verstappen, but then the Monegasque appeared to slightly move towards the Dutchman’s car while they were still alongside, something Verstappen felt Leclerc should have been penalised for.

The stewards held a different view and noted both drivers were moving towards each other, leaving it as a racing incident with neither party fully to blame.

“The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 1 (Max Verstappen), the driver of Car 16 (Charles Leclerc), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence,” the stewards wrote.

“Car 1 lost traction while navigating Turn 14 and therefore had to defend his position on track against Car 16. Car 16 proceeded to move to overtake Car 1 on the start-finish straight. Both cars were moving slightly towards each other in the middle of the track and a minor collision occurred as a result.

“Both drivers were of the view that this was an avoidable collision and could potentially have resulted in a major crash but neither driver was wholly or predominantly to blame. In the circumstances, we took no further action.”

Verstappen eventually finished 10th after a 10s penalty for colliding into George Russell, while Leclerc claimed third behind the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Verstappen’s penalty came with three penalty points on his licence, leaving him one point away from a race ban between now and the Austrian Grand Prix at the end of June.