Charles Leclerc gets big penalty just hours after Miami GP, leaving fans shocked
After the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc got a penalty after the race.
For the third race straight, Kimi Antonelli was the fastest. The Mercedes driver won the Miami race and increased his lead in the drivers’ championship. The 19-year-old from Italy held off Lando Norris and is now 20 points ahead of his teammate George Russell, who finished fourth behind Oscar Piastri.
At one point, Antonelli and Leclerc had a tough battle. Norris and Antonelli pulled ahead, leaving Leclerc behind. Despite spinning on the first lap, Red Bull’s Verstappen recovered to finish fifth, his best finish so far this season. Hamilton came in sixth, Franco Colapinto seventh, and Leclerc finished eighth.
Leclerc had a tough day, and things got worse after the race. He was given a 20-second penalty for three rule breaches. On the last lap, he spun and hit the wall, then kept racing even though his car was damaged. He left the track several times while fighting with Russell, which the stewards said wasn’t allowed. This penalty pushed him from sixth down to eighth place.
The stewards explained that even though Leclerc said the car didn’t handle right, cutting the corners gave him an unfair advantage. They didn’t agree that the car’s problem excused leaving the track. They chose not to penalize him for driving a damaged car because there was no clear proof it was unsafe.
Verstappen also got a smaller penalty of five seconds for crossing the white line when leaving the pits.
Fans shared their opinions on social media about Leclerc’s penalty. One said, “He spun out, cut every corner on the last lap, and still got a penalty. He wasn’t having a good day.” Another said, “It’s crazy they don’t count the car not turning right as a good reason to leave the track.” One more asked, “Didn’t you see him steer and the wheels just didn’t turn?”
F1 will now take a break for three weeks before coming back in Canada later in May.