Leclerc, Stroll escape penalties for collisions in Spanish GP practice

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll have received a reprimand for making contact with other cars during final practice for Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Towards the end of Saturday’s FP3 session, Leclerc was impeded by Lando Norris through Turn 5, an incident which provoked an angry response from the Monegasque.

He pulled up alongside the McLaren and swerved into him, his left rear tyre making contact with Norris’ front wing endplate.

On the team radio, Leclerc said: “F***er. I don’t understand why they do that”, while Norris reported that Leclerc “just drove into me. I think I’ve got damage.”

A comparable accident occurred between Stroll and Hamilton in the same left-hand corner, with Hamilton blocking Stroll while he was on an out-lap.

In response an irate Stroll similarly cut off Hamilton, who had moved all the way over to the edge of the track, resulting in both cars making glancing contact around the floor edge area. The contact meant Stroll’s Aston Martin team had to check his car for damage.

Right before the contact Hamilton held his hand up to apologise while telling his team he hadn’t seen the Aston driver.

Both Leclerc and Stroll were summoned by the FIA race stewards to justify their aggressive driving behaviour, which was potentially in breach of the FIA’s sporting regulations regarding “driving unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous”.

The stewards were lenient towards both, with Leclerc and Stroll each receiving their first reprimand of the season.

In his hearing, Leclerc claimed he had misjudged the distance with Norris and made contact by accident.

“The driver of Car 16 stated that he got impeded by Car 4 into Turn 5 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 7, he misjudged the position of his car and made slight contact with Car 4.

“Irrespective of any possible intent, the Stewards consider the move made by Car 16, whilst not being dangerous, to be erratic and therefore issue a driving reprimand in line with precedents.”

Stroll said he just wanted to make his displeasure with Hamilton known.

“The driver of Car 18 stated that he got impeded by Car 44 into Turn 5 and that upset him. He admitted that he wanted to express his displeasure to the other driver by…