Charles Leclerc penalty under scrutiny as Lando Norris breaks rank on FIA decision

Lando Norris was left perplexed by the FIA stewards’ decision to penalise Charles Leclerc at the Brazilian Grand Prix as he declared it was a “perfectly placed nudge” on Liam Lawson.

Leclerc was hit with a five-second penalty by the Interlagos race stewards, which dropped him behind Lawson in the official classification.

Why Lando Norris disagreed with Charles Leclerc’s five-second penalty

Lawson was defending against Leclerc in the closing laps of the race.

Leclerc, on the inside line into Juncao, rubbed wheels with his Racing Bulls rival as they exited the uphill left-hander.

It was enough to unsettle Lawson, with the Ferrari driver taking seventh place off the New Zealander as they navigated the Senna S at the end of the long front straight.

Lawson branded it a “GP2 move”, saying: “I feel like it was exactly like his GP2 move to Abu Dhabi, like on [Alex] Albon years ago.

“He did the same kind of thing, so maybe it’s his specialty. I don’t know if it’s legal or not. We’ll obviously go and review it, but it was a good battle overall.”

Although Leclerc crossed the line in seventh place, the stewards handed him a five-second penalty that dropped him behind Lawson in the official classification.

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The verdict read: “While the contact was minor and Car 30 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 to get closer to him on track and then eventually overtake him 5 corners later.

“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 (ie minor) was taken into account in imposing a 5-second time penalty as opposed to a 10-second time penalty.”

Interestingly, Leclerc and Lawson’s rivals don’t agree with the stewards’ verdict.

While Max Verstappen put it down to “rubbing is racing” in the cooldown room after the race, Brazilian GP race winner Norris shared his thoughts during a Twitch stream with his friend and former racing driver, Max Fewtrell.

The full exchange went as follows:

Norris: “How did Leclerc get a five-second penalty?”

Fewtrell: “I’d say that incident was the absolute limit of a love tap that you can give in racing.”

Norris: “Yeah, but that’s just racing, no?”

Fewtrell: “That’s proper racing, it’s the limit though. I think any more of a nudge you’d lose more time and then not fair.

Fewtrell: “That was a perfectly fine nudge.”

Norris: “I agree, I agree. I thought it was a perfectly placed nudge.”

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