Leclerc retains the pole position, Tsunoda reprimanded
Charles Leclerc and Yuki Tsunoda were both heard this afternoon by the race stewards to explain their slow laps during qualifying. While Leclerc was not penalized, Tsunoda received a reprimand without any grid penalty.
Charles Leclerc will indeed start from pole position tomorrow at the Australian Grand Prix, his second of the season. After driving below the minimum time required by the race management, the Ferrari driver had to justify himself at the end of the qualifying session.
Ferrari explained that the driver was starting a lap that was supposed to be a “cool-down” lap and therefore should not have been subject to a minimum time limit. However, in the middle of the lap, they asked Leclerc to come back to the pit and he got caught in traffic. According to the statement, Leclerc made every effort not to hinder any other driver and notably slowed down his time.
The stewards did not sanction the Ferrari driver. However, that is not the case for Yuki Tsunoda, who also did not comply with the minimum required time during a cool-down lap and received a warning. This is already the third warning for the Japanese driver this season, in 3 races.
The AlphaTauri driver was judged by the stewards guilty of breaching article 33.4 for driving below the minimal required time during the last laps of the qualifications, without having to let faster cars pass, thus without any apparent reason.
Note that the stewards also listened to Zhou for having driven too fast under yellow flag, just like Perez a little earlier, he was not penalized.
