- Charles Leclerc seems to collide with Lando Norris throughout FP3 in Barcelona
- The Ferrari star will now face a grid penalty for tomorrow's Spanish Grand Prix
Charles Leclerc escaped a grid penalty after a conflict with Lando Norris throughout observe for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Carlos Sainz topped FP3 in entrance of a house crowd on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, ending narrowly forward of Norris and Leclerc.
In the meantime Max Verstappen, who prolonged his lead on the prime of the Drivers' Championship with victory final season, might solely handle fourth.
Regardless of Sainz's success, all eyes have been on his Ferrari teammate after the spat between Leclerc and Norris after observe.
Leclerc appeared more and more pissed off with Norris throughout remaining observe, feeling he was being unfairly hampered by his rival.
Charles Leclerc seems to collide with Lando Norris throughout remaining observe for the Spanish Grand Prix
Leclerc expressed his disappointment in direction of McLaren driver with X-rated touch upon workforce radio
As Leclerc handed the McLaren driver on the entrance to turns 7/8, he moved ahead and changed into Norris's entrance wing, showing to make contact with him earlier than expressing his frustration over the workforce radio.
'Oh, I don't perceive why they did that.' Leclerc mentioned.
The Monegasque driver finally confronted racing stewards over the incident, however was not given a grid penalty – as a substitute he was issued a driving reprimand.
“The stewards spoke to the motive force of automotive 16 (Charles Leclerc), the motive force of automotive 4 (Lando Norris), workforce representatives and reviewed video, workforce radios and in-car video proof,” the stewards' assertion mentioned.
'The driving force of Automotive 16 mentioned he was upset when Automotive 4 blocked him at Flip 5. He then needed to cease his flying lap and argued that he misjudged his automotive's place whereas making an attempt to exit the racing line earlier than Flip 7 and made slight contact with Automotive 4.
'No matter any potential intent, the stewards regard the motion taken by automotive 16, while not harmful, as irregular and due to this fact difficulty a reprimand for driving in step with precedent.'
After the incident, former F1 driver Karun Chandhok described Leclerc’s actions as ‘pointless’.
“Charles is probably the most pointless for me. He had already accomplished his lap, he was on an awesome lap, second push,” Chandhok mentioned on Sky Sports activities.
Regardless of the controversy, Leclerc escaped a grid penalty because the stewards deemed the incident 'irregular' however not 'harmful'
'On his delta time, he was behind at Flip 5. Perhaps Lando would have harm him a bit at Flip 5, however he was not going to enhance his lap time.
'It felt pointless to come back into qualifying.
'There's solely two hours in between, he needed to go to the managers, waste half an hour speaking about this matter, when try to be speaking about placing your self in the suitable place for qualifying.'
