The Ferrari driver qualified third for his home race but will drop three positions to sixth after "unn♍ecessarily impeding"🥃 McLaren’s Norris during the final part of qualifying. 

Replays showed Leclerc clearly blockin🐼g Norris in the tunnel, forcing the McLaren driver to dramatically lift off. 

Norris, who was on a flying lap at the time, was🐲 unable to improve and ended up 10th. 

The penalty means Esteban Ocon will start th🐓ird, while Carlos Sainz and Lewis Ham☂ilton will each move up a place to fourth and fifth respectively. 

What the stewards said 

"The Stewards heard from the driver of Car ​16 (Charles Leclerc), the driver of Car ​4 (Lando Norris), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling systemꦡ data, video, timing data, team radio and in-car video evidence.

"Leclerc 💦had finished his final lap of Q3 and was in the Turn 4 through Turn 10 complex. Norris was on a fast lap and caught Leclerc in the middle of the tunnel and was clearly impeded.

"Both drivers agreed that there was little that Leclerc could have safely done in the tunnel to avoid impeding Norris, given the difficulty in vision due to the light entering and in the tunnel and the change of lines from one side of the tunnel to the other. In fact, theꦦ Stewards observed that Leclerc reacted in a sensible way to a blue flag displayed by the marshals, but at this point it was too late.

"However, the Stewards reviewed team radio, and Lec🌼lerc’s team failed to give him any warning abou🧸t Norris’ approach until Norris was already directly behind him.

"Further๊, the discussion during the preceding portion of the track was enti☂rely about competing drivers, not the traffic behind, which is a critical task at this track.

"The Stewards believe that there is much that Leclerc could have done prior to the tu﷽nnel to avoid the impeding had he received warning from the team at an appropriate time, especially considering that Norris’ approach was clear on the marshalling system. Thus, the Stewards consider that the imped꧟ing was unnecessary.

"The Stewards reviewed al🐭l the preceding unnecessarily impeding penalties in the past few years. In every case, the actions, or inaction of the team did not mitigate the unnecessary impeding. Thus the Stewards impose the usual penalty of a three grid drop."