Charles Leclerc admitted the Miami Grand Prix was “all on me” after a costly final-lap error and a subsequent stewards’ penalty dropped him to eighth. The Ferrari driver had driven strongly for much of the race, taking the lead from the second row at the start and holding a podium position until late in the race.
An early Safety Car shuffled the order and Leclerc slipped back to third behind Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli. He remained in the final podium spot until Oscar Piastri swept past on the penultimate lap, relegating Leclerc to fourth.
On the last lap Leclerc spun into the wall at Turn Three, damaging his SF-26. Although he was able to continue, the car was impaired and he lost more places through the closing corners, falling behind George Russell and Max Verstappen to cross the line in sixth.
Race control then investigated Leclerc for repeatedly leaving the track while nursing the damaged car. Officials concluded that cutting the chicanes after the spin had given him a lasting advantage and ruled that the mechanical issues he reported did not justify the actions. Stewards applied a 20-second penalty in lieu of a drive-through, which demoted Leclerc to eighth in the final classification, behind Lewis Hamilton and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto.
Speaking before the penalty was confirmed, a frustrated Leclerc told Sky Sports F1: “It’s all on me and I don’t have much to add other than that. Very disappointed with my mistake. It shouldn’t happen. I pushed very hard on the second to last lap, I thought it was a good idea to kind of let Oscar go for me to get the overtake. I knew it was going to be very difficult to stay in front otherwise. But it was a very poor decision, and in the space of four corners I put a very strong race in the bin, so I’m very frustrated about that.”
About trying to nurse the damaged car home he added that he had done his best to make the remaining corners and that it was more difficult than it looked from the outside.
The stewards’ statement noted that although Leclerc reported a problem with right-hand turns after contact with the wall, they determined this did not justify leaving the track to cut the chicanes and that doing so produced a lasting advantage. They imposed a Drive Through penalty on car 16, applied as a 20-second time penalty.
Formula 1 now heads to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix and another Sprint weekend, with live coverage on Sky Sports F1 from May 22-24.