Liam Lawson has gained a position in the Brazilian Grand Prix result after the stewards penalised Charles Leclerc.
The stewards handed Leclerc a penalty for colliding with Lawson at Juncao as he began overtaking him at the end of lap 69. Leclerc completed his move on the following lap.The stewards ruled the contact was caused by Leclerc and it contributed to his pass on Lawson.
“While the contact was minor and Car 30 [Lawson] 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 [Leclerc] to get closer to him on track and then eventually overtake him five corners later,” they noted. “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.
“The driver of car 16 claimed that it was a minor contact with no obvious sporting consequence.
“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.
“In mitigation, the wet conditions coupled with the nature of the contact (i.e. minor) was taken into account in imposing a five second time penalty as opposed to a 10 second time penalty.”
The stewards also issued a five-second time penalty to Andrea Kimi Antonelli because Mercedes released him from his pit box into the path of Franco Colapinto. The penalty does not change his finishing position.
This article will be updated
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