Charles Leclerc has been given a 20-second penalty that drops him to eighth in the Miami Grand Prix classification, for going off-track repeatedly after his last-lap spin.

Leclerc lost the rear of his Ferrari through Turns 2 and 3 while chasing Oscar Piastri in their fight for third place, and hit the wall with the left-hand side of his car as he gathered the spin up.

He was able to continue but with enough damage that he dropped almost 20 seconds behind Piastri and was caught and passed by George Russell and Max Verstappen.

In trying to get back to the finish line, Leclerc went off-track several times.

Leclerc went off trying to navigate the Turn 5 and 6 Esses normally, then having realised his problem, opted to cut several corners over the rest of the lap.

He used the run-off on the inside of Turns 8, 11 and the Turn 14/15 chicane – having crawled through the long Turn 12 right hander as well.

It was felt by the stewards that this act of repeatedly leaving the track gained Leclerc a lasting advantage and the fact he “had a mechanical issue of some sort did not amount to a justifiable reason”.

The 20-second penalty is imposed in lieu of a drivethrough, and drops Leclerc behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto.

The stewards did at least clear Leclerc of driving in an unsafe condition.
They said that there was “no evidence of there being an obvious or discernible mechanical issue”.

That is despite the stewards’ own report referring to a mechanical issue, and Leclerc admitting the “significant” damage he inflicted included suspension damage as “I couldn’t really turn to the right anymore”.