FIA stewards explain Leclerc's Mexico City penalty as Verstappen questions consistency

Charles Leclerc's five-second penalty at the Mexico City Grand Prix has been explained by the FIA stewards, who confirmed the sanction was halved from the standard 10-second baseline because Lewis Hamilton was also off track in the same first-lap flashpoint.

The Ferrari pair ran side by side into Turn 4 on the opening tour, with Leclerc arriving in second place and emerging in the lead. Both ran wide, but only the Monegasque carried on in front — a move the stewards deemed an overtake completed off track.

Why it matters:

The ruling sits awkwardly against the guidance given to teams and drivers before the race, which stated that positions gained in such circumstances would draw a penalty unless handed back by a set point later in the lap. Leclerc never relinquished the place, and the eventual five-second sanction — half the baseline — immediately raised questions about how consistently the stewards are applying their own framework.

The details:

• The stewards determined both cars entered Turn 4 with excessive speed and neither could have made the corner on track, pointing to Hamilton being forced off the track on the inside.
• Leclerc was therefore not entitled to claim the corner, and completing the pass while off track warranted a penalty.
• The baseline guideline is 10 seconds, cut to five in mitigation.
• Contributing factors: Hamilton was also off track on the inside of the Ferrari, and the incident occurred early in the first lap.

Max Verstappen, watching the call unfold, summed up the paddock's bewilderment over the radio: "Ha! I thought all the new penalties were 10 [seconds]."

What's next:

The stewards' written reasoning gives drivers a clearer picture of how lap-one leniency and shared responsibility are being weighed. Whether that interpretation holds through the remaining rounds is the question teams will press at the next drivers' briefing.