Leclerc defends FIA stewards after controversial penalties in Texas

On the back of several controversial overtaking moves in the Austin F1 Sprint and the at the United States Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc has defended the FIA, claiming that it is impossible to come up with a rulebook that covers all the scenarios.

Having started from P2 on the grid, Max Verstappen took an aggressive approach at the start, slightly forcing his championship rival Lando Norris wide at Turn 1, which allowed Ferrari's Charles Leclerc through.

The Dutchman hung on to second after the first-corner melee, but he then lost out to Carlos Sainz in the pit stops, who elected to pit earlier than his direct rivals.

The closing stages of the race saw Norris close in on Verstappen, who started to struggle on his aging tyres. Despite being on six laps older tyres, the reigning champion defended superbly for lap after lap to keep his rival at bay. However, Norris eventually make it through, overtaking his rival in the run-off zone at Turn 12 for which he was later handed a five-second penalty.

Commenting on the controversial overtaking moves, Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz noted: "I think some things are. Others are still a bit blurry to me, let's put it like that.

"I think there was an example yesterday with Oscar's overtake. That for me was completely fine and very similar to anything that we've done between each other on the sprint. And I felt like the penalty on Oscar yesterday was really, really harsh and didn't go along with some guidelines that I thought were the way they were.

"So yeah, that penalty surprised me yesterday. About today, I have no clue because I haven't seen, I haven't gone five seconds by five seconds penalty to see. So let's see.

Asked to comment on the penalties, eight-time F1 race winner Charles Leclerc said: "I agree with Carlos on Oscar's penalty yesterday. I also thought it was a bit too harsh.

"However, on the rules, I think they are clear. Sometimes the interpretation of the rule can be a little bit different because it will be impossible to have a rule book that takes every single scenario. Every scenario is different, has its particularity, and you've got to analyse it in a different way and interpret the rules in some ways for particular scenarios, which is what the FIA is trying to do best.

"However, sometimes we disagree, and I think on the one of yesterday, it's something that we'll probably talk of in the next driver briefing," he commented.