Lando Norris questions Leclerc’s five-second Brazilian GP penalty

Lando Norris questioned Charles Leclerc’s five-second penalty for contact with Liam Lawson in the Brazilian Grand Prix, a sanction that cost Leclerc a place in the final classification.

The penalty was imposed after the race, moving Leclerc from seventh on the road to eighth, behind Lawson.

Leclerc touched the left rear of Lawson’s Racing Bulls car at Turn 12 on the penultimate lap at Interlagos. He then overtook Lawson for seventh at the Senna S after the long front straight.

Crash.net reports that Norris discussed the incident on a Twitch stream with his friend and former racing driver Max Fewtrell. “Yeah, but that’s just racing, no?” the McLaren driver said.

“That’s proper racing, and I think it’s the limit. I think anymore of a nudge and he’d lose more time and it’s not fair. That was a perfectly-timed nudge,” Fewtrell said.

The stewards’ verdict stated that Lawson had the right to the corner under the driving standards guidelines and that Leclerc was responsible for avoiding contact.

According to the verdict, Lawson claimed the collision damaged his left-rear rim, while Leclerc argued that the contact was minor and had 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 Leclerc was able to get closer to and thereafter overtake Lawson because of the contact,” the stewards said.

The stewards took the wet conditions and the minor nature of the contact into account when choosing a five-second penalty rather than a 10-second sanction.