Charles Leclerc gets double penalty for clash and late stop

Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc has been handed two time penalties for his incidents during the Japanese Grand Prix. Charles broke the left front endplate of his car in a second-corner clash with Max Verstappen at Suzuka, and the part dragged along the ground for much of the opening lap.

F1 race director Michael Masi had safety concerns about the part breaking off and, during communication with the team, he was advised that Charles Leclerc would be pitted at the end of the second lap.

But, with Charles not losing much time initially, Ferrari kept him out – with the part then breaking off on the second lap. The flying parts struck Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, ripping off his right-hand side mirror, and pieces also ended up in the front brake duct of Lando Norris.

Charles has received a 15-second time penalty, five seconds for his initial collision with Verstappen and 10 for Ferrari leaving him out with a damaged car. The penalty drops Leclerc from sixth to seventh, behind Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo.

Asked by Motorsport.com about the Leclerc situation, Masi said: “I was originally advised that they would be pitting the car. They then chose not to and subsequently Ferrari was instructed by me to pit Charles’ car, which it did.

Leclerc gets double penalty for clash, late stop

“On the second lap, the elements came off and they were still instructed to pit because we could not confirm if there was going to be anything else that was going to come off.” Pushed further on whether or not he was slightly annoyed Ferrari did not pit when he expected them to, Masi said: “More than ‘slightly annoyed’ from a safety perspective.”

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl said he was upset about what Ferrari had done, especially because the broken front wing parts cost Norris the chances of a good points-scoring finish.

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“We obviously strongly disagree with competitors leaving cars out on track with entire front wing endplates hanging down, putting everyone at risk,” he said – “Unfortunately when this endplate then exploded, we were catching in our front right brake duct debris, from Ferrari. Brake temperature went through the roof so we had to box him to clean it. And then the race was over.”