Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll have been given formal reprimands for their incidents with two other drivers during final practice.
Leclerc made contact with Lando Norris after encountering the driver during a flying lap. Moments earlier, Stroll provoked contact with Lewis Hamilton in similar circumstances after also catching the Mercedes at turn five.
The stewards ruled Leclerc and Stroll both acted in retaliation and that their moves were erratic but not dangerous.
The Mercedes and Aston Martin made contact at the exit of turn five. Stroll was on a flying lap when he caught Hamilton at the corner. The Mercedes was too slow to move aside and Stroll abandoned his lap and squeezed Hamilton at the exit of the corner, causing contact between the pair.
Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington warned him “Ricciardo behind on an out-lap with Stroll on a timed, five seconds,” before Stroll caught him. “I didn’t see him, my bad,” said Hamilton after the Aston Martin driver made contact with him.
“The fucking guy thinks he’s all alone on the track,” remarked Stroll on his radio.
Stroll told the stewards he intended to “express his displeasure” to Hamilton by driving towards his rival at the exit of the corner. The stewards accepted the contact between the pair was “incidental” and therefore had not been dangerous.
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After speaking to both drivers the stewards deemed “the driver of car 18 [Stroll] stated that he [was] impeded by car 44 [Hamilton] into turn five and that upset him. He admitted that he wanted to express his displeasure to the other driver by pulling over on him at the exit.
“Both cars made slight contact which was incidental. However, the stewards consider the move made by car 18, whilst not being dangerous, to be erratic and therefore issue a driving reprimand in line with precedents.”
The contact between Leclerc and Norris occured further on from the exit of turn five and at higher speeds. Leclerc moved left towards Norris and caused contact with the McLaren, but after speaking to the pair the stewards decided this had been a misjudgement by the Ferrari driver.
“The driver of car 16 [Leclerc] stated that he [was] impeded by car four [Norris] into turn five and that upset him. He then had to abort his flying lap and contended that, while trying to get off the
racing line before turn seven, he misjudged the position of his car and made slight contact
with…
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