Charles Leclerc was relegated to eighth in the final Miami Grand Prix classification after stewards issued a 20-second penalty for corner cutting, capping a chaotic last lap for the Ferrari driver. The sanction followed a Turn Three spin that damaged his SF-26 and triggered a scramble to the flag. The amended result dropped him behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Alpine's Franco Colapinto.
Leclerc had earlier surged from the second row to lead before an early Safety Car reshaped the race and left him third behind Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli. He remained on course for a podium late on, only to be caught and passed by McLaren's Oscar Piastri on the penultimate lap.
On the final tour he slid into the wall at Turn Three and, with a hobbled car, struggled to make the remaining corners. Mercedes' George Russell and Red Bull's Max Verstappen both cleared the Ferrari through the last two bends, leaving Leclerc sixth at the flag before the penalty.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 before the penalty was applied, Leclerc accepted responsibility. "It's all on me and I don't have much to add other than that," he said. "Very disappointed with my mistake."
Explaining his approach, he added: "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."
On nursing the car to the finish, Leclerc said: "The thing I can say is that I did my best to try to make the corners, first of all. It was probably a lot more difficult than what it looked from outside."
Leclerc told stewards his car would not take right-hand turns properly after hitting the wall, but officials rejected that as mitigation. They found that "the fact that he had a mechanical issue of some sort did not amount to a justifiable reason" for cutting several corners. "We determined that the fact that he had to cut the chicanes (i.e. to leave the track) meant that he gained a lasting advantage by leaving the track in that manner," stewards said.
"We accordingly impose a Drive Through penalty on Car 16 [Leclerc], given the number of times the car left the track and gained an advantage." Applied as a 20-second time addition after the flag, it moved him back two more places.
Hamilton, who finished seventh in Saturday's Sprint, crossed the line nine seconds behind Leclerc after sustaining damage in first-lap contact with Colapinto. Reflecting on a low-key weekend, he said: "Seventh and a seventh, just in no man's land in both races, but particularly today with the damage."
"There was nothing I could do. Really unfortunate because the team worked so hard. To come away with xx points - we have to move on from here." He described the opening-lap sequence: "I was unlucky with Max spinning [at the second corner], I had to go to the right of him. I had a good Turn One and I was in a good position and then the only way I could go was right. Then I lost positions from there, and then I think it was Franco that hit me, and I lost a lot of performance from there."
The dramatic finale also featured Kimi Antonelli taking victory and George Russell nursing wing damage. Attention now shifts to the next round of the 2026 season as teams assess Miami's fallout.
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*Originally published on [News Formula 1](https://newsformula.one/article/leclerc-hit-with-20s-penalty-demoted-to-p8-after-miami-spin). Visit for full coverage.*