Leclerc penalised for Lawson clash; Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP

Charles Leclerc was handed a five-second penalty after the Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix for his clash with Liam Lawson, dropping the Ferrari driver down to eighth place in the final results.

The Monegasque was battling the Racing Bulls driver for seventh place on lap 69 of the Sao Paulo race when the pair made contact into Juncao, Turn 12, but both were able to continue and finish the race.

The clash did enable Leclerc to take seventh place from Lawson but the incident was placed under investigation for a post-race hearing.

After speaking to both drivers and assessing the video and data, the FIA stewards determined Leclerc was to blame and duly gave him a five-second penalty, dropping the Ferrari driver behind his rival and into eighth place in the final results.

The FIA stewards accepted that the contact was minor and in wet conditions, which was enough mitigation to keep the penalty to 5s and not a potential 10s punishment.

The FIA stewards report 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.

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls

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“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 5 second time penalty as opposed to a 10 second time penalty.”

Antonelli and Bearman also penalised for unsafe releases from pitstops

New F1 world champion Kimi Antonelli was also given a five-second penalty after the Brazilian GP for an unsafe pitstop release.

The Italian was released from his final pitstop of the race into the path of the oncoming Franco Colapinto and despite attempting to take avoiding action it was judged unsafe and a five-second penalty was duly handed out.

But because Antonelli finished over 20s ahead of Oscar Piastri, who was directly behind him on the road, it does not change his final finishing position of fifth place – as Mercedes secured this year’s F1 constructors’ championship.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

In a separate incident also involving Leclerc, Oliver Bearman was given a post-race five-second penalty for an unsafe release from a pitstop. The Haas F1 driver was released into the path of the Ferrari driver, which forced Leclerc to check-up in the pitlane.

The penalty has no consequence to Bearman either given he finished in 17th and one lap up on Sergio Perez in 18th place.