27/05/2023
NEWS STORY
Charles Leclerc will start his home Grand Prix from sixth on the grid after being handed a 3-place grid drop for impeding Lando Norris in Q3.
As well as hearing from both drivers and their team representatives, the stewards 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, while Norris was on a fast lap and caught the Ferrari in the middle of the tunnel and was clearly impeded, deemed the stewards.
Both drivers agreed that there was little that Leclerc could have safely done tunnel to avoid impeding the McLarens, 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 the Briton 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 critical task at this track.
The stewards feel that there is much that Leclerc could have done prior to the tunnel to avoid the impeding had he received warning from his team at an appropriate time, especially considering that Norris' approach was clear on the marshalling system.
Consequently, the stewards considered that the impeding was unnecessary and having 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.
As a result the Stewards imposed the usual penalty of a three-place grid drop.
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