Charles Leclerc loses three places at the start

After reviewing the incident in the qualifying final, when Charles Leclerc slowed down in the tunnel, preventing Lando Norris’ fast lap, the Monaco Grand Prix stewards deemed his actions potentially dangerous and penalized him with the loss of three positions at the start of tomorrow’s Grand Prix. race.

The stewards listened to the drivers, representatives from Ferrari and McLaren, studied all available information, including recordings from the car’s built-in cameras. As it turned out, Leclerc returned to the pits after his last attempt, and Norris was on a fast lap and overtook Leclerc in the tunnel, clearly ahead of him.

Both drivers agreed that there was little Leclerc could have done to avoid this situation given the problems with visibility in the tunnel and the difficulty of changing lanes. In addition, the stewards determined that Leclerc reacted reasonably reasonably when he saw the marshals show him the blue flags, but it was too late.

However, after analyzing the radio exchange between Leclerc and his engineer, the stewards found that the team failed to warn the driver of the approach of Norris’ car and did so only at the last minute, when the McLaren was already directly behind the Ferrari.

Moreover, in the previous part of the circle, Leclerc and his engineer only discussed the drivers participating in the qualifying final, and not the track situation, although this is important in Monaco. The stewards believe that Leclerc would have been able to take the necessary measures before entering the tunnel if the team had warned him in time of Norris’s approach. Therefore, the stewards felt that interference with another rider could have been avoided.

The stewards also studied what sanctions were taken against riders for similar offenses in previous years. In all of these cases, the team’s action or inaction was not considered an extenuating circumstance. Therefore, the stewards decided on a penalty in the form of the loss of three starting positions.