Leclerc and Antonelli post-race penalties at Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Digi Mart USA News: Charles Leclerc has lost his seventh-place finish at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after receiving a penalty from the stewards. Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli were each handed five-second time penalties for separate incidents during the race at Interlagos.
Leclerc, who described his opening stint as “horrendous,” worked to recover positions as rain increased. He steadily closed the gap to Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson before tapping Lawson’s left rear wheel at Turn 12 and sweeping around the outside to pass him on the penultimate lap.
The stewards ruled that the contact merited a time penalty for Leclerc. Lawson crossed the line just under two seconds behind, and the two drivers swapped places in the classification, leaving Leclerc eighth.
In their decision, the stewards said they heard from both drivers and team representatives and reviewed positioning and marshalling system data, video and in-car footage. They determined that Car 16 made contact with Car 30 at Turn 12.
While acknowledging the contact was minor, they concluded it disrupted Lawson and allowed Leclerc to get alongside and overtake him, which was an obvious sporting consequence.
The stewards said the wet conditions and the minor nature of the contact were taken into account, reducing the penalty from a possible 10 seconds to five.
Antonelli was also penalized for an unsafe release from the pit lane. Mercedes inadvertently sent him into the path of Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, forcing him to swerve to avoid contact.
Five seconds were added to his race time, but he retained fifth place thanks to an original 20-second advantage over sixth-placed Oscar Piastri.
The stewards said Antonelli momentarily lost control on the slippery surface and had to take evasive steps, creating a potentially unsafe situation. The team acknowledged the release could have been handled better and more safely.
In a similar incident, Haas driver Ollie Bearman received a five-second time penalty for being released unsafely from his pit stop just as Leclerc was passing him in the pit lane. Bearman still held seventeenth place ahead of Cadillac’s Sergio Perez, a missed opportunity for points after starting from a career-best sixth on the grid.
