Max Verstappen radio dismissed as FIA stewards explain Charles Leclerc penalty

The FIA stewards have explained their thinking behind Charles Leclerc's Mexico City Grand Prix penalty, which appeared to go against the grain of their guidelines.

Leclerc was handed a five-second penalty for an opening-lap squabble with Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton at the Autodrómo Hermanos Rodríguez.

The Monégasque was adjudged to have left the track and gained a lasting advantage as he had been second heading into Turn 4, but emerged with the lead as Hamilton also ran wide.

Despite guidelines from the stewards to the teams and drivers pre-race that such incidents would incur a penalty if they did not give the gained positions back by a certain point later in the lap, Leclerc carried on out front.

When the stewards finally delivered their verdict, and upon being informed of a seemingly lesser penalty, Verstappen said: Ha! I thought all the new penalties were 10 [seconds]."

Via a statement, the stewards made clear why the penalty was eventually halved.

"The stewards have determined that both cars entered Turn 4 with excessive speed and therefore neither would have been able to make the corner on track, as demonstrated by the fact that car 44 [Hamilton], which was on the inside, had to go off track to make the corner," read the statement.

"Car 16 was therefore not entitled to claim the corner due to the excessive entry speed.

"The driver then completed an overtake whilst off track, and accordingly this warrants a penalty.

"The baseline penalty guideline is 10 seconds; however, in mitigation is the fact that car 44 was also off track on the inside of car 16, and this occurred early in the first lap."