Things can always get worse: Stewards penalise Charles Leclerc, Lawson benefits
FOM/Screenshot
Ferrari failed to delay Mercedes’ title celebrations until Las Vegas. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton had no answer to the Silver Arrows and ended up on the losing side. But as the saying goes, things can always get worse: Charles Leclerc was handed a post-race five-second penalty for causing a collision with Liam Lawson.
In the closing stages of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the Italian team was fighting for only seventh place, which Lawson held at the time. Charles Leclerc tried to salvage at least those two points for Ferrari, if nothing more.
He spent five laps setting up a move on the Racing Bulls driver, but time was running out for the Monegasque. Heading into the penultimate lap, he was right on Lawson’s rear wing when he decided it was now or never. He dived down the inside at Turn 12 and the pair made contact. Both cars were able to continue, but Leclerc was summoned to the stewards for causing a collision.
La carrera de Leclerc ha tenido momentos brillantes y momentos nefastos. Me quedo con los brillantes. Adelantamiento agresivo a su compañero de equipo Lawson. #leclercfiles
“While the contact was minor and Car 30 was able to maintain the lead thereafter, the driver of Car 30 claimed that the contact damaged the rear left rim of his car and also enabled Car 16 to get closer to him on track and then eventually overtake him 5 corners later,” the stewards said in their account of the hearing. “Furthermore, under the Driving Standard Guidelines, Car 30 had the right to the corner and it was for Car 16 to take the necessary steps to avoid a collision.”
Charles Leclerc argued in his defence that there had been only minor contact, with no sporting consequences. The stewards agreed with the first part of that argument, but not the rest. “While we acknowledge that the contact was minor, having examined the fight on track between the two cars, we conclude that Car 16 was able to get closer to and thereafter overtake Car 30 because of the contact. The contact clearly disrupted Car 30 and allowed Car 16 to pull up alongside when it was further away before the contact. This was an obvious sporting consequence.”
The stewards’ panel of Nish Shetty, Loïc Bacquelaine, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Felipe Maluhy would normally have handed Leclerc a 10-second penalty, but ultimately reduced it. Leclerc received only a five-second penalty because, according to the FIA, the contact was minor.
The verdict will please Liam Lawson. The New Zealander may see it as justice, as he gains a position and moves ahead of Charles Leclerc in the results.
Leclerc drops from seventh to eighth. Lawson moves in the opposite direction.
Kimi Antonelli and Ollie Bearman were handed five-second penalties for unsafe releases from the pits, but neither penalty changed the final classification.
