27 May 2023 , 18:44
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Charles Leclerc's Monaco bad luck continued on Saturday, with the Ferrari driver docked three grid places for his home grand prix after being penalised for impeding Lando Norris.
Following qualifying, the FIA confirmed that Leclerc had been penalised following his impeding of Norris, who was on a hot lap during the final part of qualifying. He will start in sixth place as a result, with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton rising to start fifth for Sunday's race.
Norris had been on a hot lap during Q3, with Leclerc having just finished his final qualifying run. Due to this, the Monegasque driver was shown the blue flag, meaning that he should let the faster car through, but on the narrow street circuit he was unable to provide a sufficiently clear path for Norris, impeding the McLaren driver's hot lap.
Norris will start in tenth, with his best lap being a 1:12.254 and what promised to be a good result for the McLaren driver now ends in disappointment, albeit still outqualifying his teammate Oscar Piastri.
The FIA stewards' report read : “Leclerc had finished his final lap of Q3 and was in the Turn 4 through Turn 10 complex,” It continued.. “Norris was on a fast lap and caught Leclerc in the middle of the tunnel and was clearly impeded.
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“Both drivers agreed that there was little that Leclerc could have safely done in the tunnel to avoid impeding Norris, given the difficulty in vision due to the light entering and in the tunnel and the change of lines from one side of the tunnel to the other.
“In fact, the stewards observed that Leclerc reacted in a sensible way to a blue flag displayed by the marshals, but at this point it was too late. However, the stewards reviewed team radio, and Leclerc’s team failed to give him any warning about Norris’ approach until Norris was already directly behind him.
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“Further, the discussion during the preceding portion of the track was entirely about competing drivers, not the traffic behind, which is a critical task at this track.
“The stewards believe that there is much that Leclerc could have done prior to the tunnel to avoid the impeding had he received warning from the team at an appropriate time, especially considering that Norris’ approach was clear on the marshalling system.
“Thus, the stewards consider that the impeding was unnecessary. The stewards reviewed all the preceding unnecessarily impeding penalties in the past few years.
“In every case, the actions, or inaction of the team did not mitigate the unnecessary impeding. Thus the stewards impose the usual penalty of a three grid drop.”
Charles Leclerc has bad luck in his home race, with a qualifying crash ruining hopes of a win in 2021 ((Photo by Clive Rose - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images))The result continues Leclerc's poor run in the Principalty he grew up in, with a pole-position in 2022 promising much before a fourth placed finish, with Leclerc citing poor strategy decisions from the team. A year earlier, he had qualified fastest, but a crash in qualifying meant that he was unable to take his place at the front due to car damage.