F1: Charles Leclerc reflects on time penalty awarded at Japanese GP

Charles Leclerc has reflected on the time penalty he was given at the Japanese Grand Prix, which led to Max Verstappen winning the world championship.

The Ferrari driver ended up finishing third in the classification for the race at Suzuka after a late mistake saw him cut the corner at the final chicane, with him ruled to have kept a position unfairly in front of Sergio Perez, who had been applying serious pressure in the Red Bull for a number of laps.

Indeed, the FIA quickly ruled that Leclerc should be given a 5-second time penalty, demoting him to third, and that combined with the full points that were awarded for the race meant that Verstappen could seal the title in Suzuka.

Leclerc was naturally disappointed, even if he would have known it was only a matter of time before Max took the crown this year, and he has admitted that the time penalty was probably the right call from the stewards, though he did not know the lap that he was racing on at the time would prove to be the final one.

“I did a mistake, tried to minimise it obviously by trying to go straight,” Leclerc said after the race at a damp Suzuka.

“I was not aware this was the last lap. But five seconds penalty was the right thing to do, to be honest.”

Honest enough from Leclerc, who will now be focusing on building momentum for 2023.

The start of the season promised so much but things have faded away for Leclerc and Ferrari and now they’re focused on just finishing this year as strong as possible.

If they can learn from this year’s setbacks and keep improving the car, which is very competitive, then they can offer a really stern challenge to Red Bull and Verstappen next year.

Time will tell if that is what happens, though.

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