F1 News: Charles Leclerc Receives Penalty For Monaco Grand Prix After Qualifying Mistake

In an unfortunate turn of events for the Ferrari team after qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc has been penalised by the stewards for

In an unfortunate turn of events for the Ferrari team after qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc has been penalised by the stewards for impeding Lando Norris during one of the British driver's flying laps.

The incident occurred when Leclerc almost made contact with Norris during the qualifying session, blocking his flying lap in the legendary Monaco tunnel. As a result, the stewards have decided to impose a three-place grid penalty on the Ferrari driver. This means that Leclerc will have to start the Monaco Grand Prix from the sixth position on the grid.

Carlos Sainz will now start P4 tomorrow.

The FIA released the following reasoning:

The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 16 (Charles Leclerc), the driver of Car 4 (Lando Norris), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing data, team radio and in-car video evidence.

Leclerc had finished his final lap of Q3 and was in the Turn 4 through Turn 10 complex. Norris was on a fast lap and caught Leclerc in the middle of the tunnel and was clearly impeded.

Both drivers agreed that there was little that Leclerc could have safely done in the tunnel to avoid impeding Norris, given the difficulty in vision due to the light entering and in the tunnel and the change of lines from one side of the tunnel to the other. In fact, the Stewards observed that Leclerc reacted in a sensible way to a blue flag displayed by the marshals, but at this point it was too late.

However, the Stewards reviewed team radio, and Leclerc's team failed to give him any warning about Norris' approach until Norris was already directly behind him. Further, the discussion during the preceding portion of the track was entirely about competing drivers, not the traffic behind, which is a critical task at this track.

The Stewards believe that there is much that Leclerc could have done prior to the tunnel to avoid the impeding had he received warning from the team at an appropriate time, especially considering that Norris' approach was clear on the marshalling system. Thus, the Stewards consider that the impeding was unnecessary.T

he Stewards reviewed all the preceding unnecessarily impeding penalties in the past few years. In every case, the actions, or inaction of the team did not mitigate the unnecessary impeding. Thus the Stewards impose the usual penalty of a three grid drop.