Charles Leclerc addresses foul play concerns after unusual collision with Lando Norris
Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris came together on track during Saturday's Spanish Grand Prix action.
Charles Leclerc has denied that there was any intent involved in his collision with Lando Norris during FP3 at the Spanish Grand Prix. The Monegasque driver was summoned to the stewards but ultimately escaped without a penalty.
The incident occurred during a drama-filled FP3 session. Norris was trundling along away from the racing line on the entry to Turn Five when Leclerc arrived on the scene on a hot lap. The Ferrari star believed he was impeded and, in response, braked sharply alongside his rival, banging wheels in the process.
Leclerc’s actions earned him a trip to the stewards, who eventually decided that a reprimand was punishment enough. The Sky Sports F1 team took a dim view of the clash though, with Karun Chandhok stating: "It just felt unnecessary coming into qualifying.
"There is only two hours in between, he has had to go up to the stewards, and waste half an hour talking about this stuff, when you should be talking about putting yourself in the right position for qualifying."
However, when he was quizzed about the incident in the aftermath of the qualifying session later on Saturday, Leclerc denied that there was any foul play from his side. “My version is very simple,” he explained. “Lando exited the pit lane and I was behind on a push lap then when he aborted I also aborted it.
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“I braked to be alongside him and I misjudged it. On the right, I didn’t want to impede either the cars behind and so I was a bit in the middle by being frustrated and looking in a mirror to try not to impede and we collided but it was a misunderstanding more than anything.”
Leclerc was then asked whether the move was born out of frustration, to which he replied: “You’re always frustrated when you do that but you never want to touch. Obviously in FP3, that’s the last thing you want to do, to damage the car, my car first of all, because I’ve got qualifying right after so it’s never the goal.”
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The 26-year-old’s frustration was compounded in qualifying as he was only able to finish Q3 in P5, just ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz. Ferrari demonstrated impressive pace throughout the three qualifying sessions but were a notch behind Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren on Saturday.