Charles Leclerc Loses 20-Second Penalty, Falls to Eighth — F1 Miami Post Race Penalties
Charles Leclerc finished the Miami Grand Prix in sixth on the road, then lost two places after f1 miami post race penalties were applied and he was dropped to eighth. The Ferrari driver received a 20-second penalty for corner-cutting, turning a damaged final lap into a worse official result.
Leclerc's final-lap slide
Leclerc said it was "all on me" after the chaotic end to his race. He spun into the wall at Turn Three on the final lap, damaged his car, and was overtaken by George Russell and Max Verstappen before the finish. He had been running in the final podium position before Oscar Piastri passed him on the penultimate lap.
"It's all on me and I don't have much to add other than that," Leclerc said. "It shouldn't happen." He added, "I pushed very hard on the second to last lap, I thought it was a good idea to kind of let Oscar go for me to get the overtake."
Stewards shift the order
The stewards gave him a 20-second penalty in lieu of a drive-through after ruling that he gained a lasting advantage by leaving the track in that manner. They also said the mechanical issue on the final lap did not amount to a justifiable reason for cutting several corners. That decision changed the classification again, moving Lewis Hamilton and Franco Colapinto ahead of Leclerc in the official results.
Leclerc had started from the second row and briefly took the lead at the start, but an early Safety Car period pushed him back to third behind Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli. From there, he was forced to chase the front-running group again, and the late spin wiped out the position he had built into the closing stages.
Miami Grand Prix fallout
He said, "I knew it was going to be very difficult to stay in front otherwise." Then came the mistake that changed everything: "But it was a very poor decision, and in the space of four corners I put a very strong race in the bin, so I'm very frustrated about that."
The revised order leaves Leclerc eighth, with Hamilton and Colapinto promoted ahead of him after the post-race decision. For Ferrari, the penalty closed the door on a result that had once put him in line for the podium and left him with only the damage from the final lap and the penalty to show for it.
