Leclerc under investigation for two qualifying incidents, Raikkonen and Perez face stewards too

Charles Leclerc is being investigated for two incidents which occured during qualifying. Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez have also been summoned to the stewards.

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The Ferrari driver faces one investigation over whether he impeded Daniil Kvyat during Q2. He was warned in turn eight “Kvyat behind at two seconds, watch for traffic with Kvyat.” But the AlphaTauri driver didn’t pass him, and repeatedly complained “he blocked me” on the radio.

The stewards are also investigating why Leclerc’s car crossed the control (start/finish) line when a red flag was shown in Q1 following Antonio Giovinazzi’s crash. Raikkonen faces an investigation for the same infringement.

The sporting regulations state that when the red flag is shown “all cars must immediately reduce speed and proceed slowly back to the pit lane.”

The red flag was shown to Raikkonen as he approached turn nine. “So box this lap?” he asked as he passed the pit entrance. “Yes,” he was told. “Fuck,” replied Raikkonen as he rounded the final corner. “Don’t worry, don’t worry,” he was told.

Leclerc was closer to the pit entrance than Raikkonen, already in turn nine, when the red flags were shown. He was crossing the pit lane entrance line when his engineer alerted him to the signal.

The third driver summoned, Perez, is being investigated for failing to respect yellow flags at turn three.

Red lights appeared as Raikkonen approached turn nine... — Red lights appeared as Raikkonen approached turn nine…

...Leclerc was already in the corner when the lights went red — …Leclerc was already in the corner when the lights went red

Update: Leclerc has been penalised for one incident, cleared for another, and the other two drivers were also cleared

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2020 F1 season

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8 comments on “Leclerc under investigation for two qualifying incidents, Raikkonen and Perez face stewards too”

DAllein (@)
11th July 2020, 16:51

Are they also investigating Lewis for driving too fast in the rain?!
Jere (@jerejj)
11th July 2020, 17:06

Pretty clear cut from the TV-cam view images below. Both had enough time to react and turn right into the pit lane entry.
1. emuload
  11th July 2020, 17:23
  
  Might be stating the obvious but… track conditions were NOT conductive to a sudden reaction. They probably both thought it would be safer for them, if not the only choice, to cross the finish line.
  1. Chaitanya
    11th July 2020, 18:25
    
    In case of Leclerc a case can be made and given a pass but Kimi was told enter pit by the team and still he missed it.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
11th July 2020, 17:07

Additional pics are great updates. Don’t know why Kimi’s pit crew said don’t worry.
1. Dave
  11th July 2020, 17:43
  
  @ruliemaulana Possibly because worrying wasn’t going to help him? Can you think of something more useful they could have said?
HAL
11th July 2020, 17:19

From these pictures, it seems clear that Kimi at the time to slow down and enter the pit. Not so clear for Leclerc ; if the red flag came out when he was at that point, he was probably carrying too much speed to enter the pit.
OOliver
11th July 2020, 18:39

For Leclerc, without know how fast he was going and exactly at what point the picture was taken, one thing I know is that it is much harder to slow down when its raining hard.