Grid penalty for Magnussen, reprimand for Albon

Haas' Kevin Magnussen has been handed a three-place grid penalty for this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix for in incident that took place in qualifying which ended up impeding Charles Leclerc.

Magnussen hit the wall coming out of Speaker's Corner during the second round. Although the VF-23 was damaged in the incident he attempted to stick to the racing line through the next few corners, which held up the Ferrari driver.

Leclerc wasn't happy with the incident and promptly made it clear over the team radio that he expected the stewards to review the incident and take appropriate measures against the Dane.

The stewards analysed the incident after the end of qualifying and agreed with Leclerc, saying that Magnussen and Haas should have both taken more care to avoid holding up the Ferrari.

"Leclerc, who was on a fast lap, caught Magnussen who did not give way until turn 16," the official statement concluded. "Magnussen explained that he did not feel it was safe to move off onto the wet at speed and give room to Leclerc, particularly in the turns between 11 and 15.

"The Stewards observed that he did not receive a warning from his team that Leclerc was behind until Leclerc was right behind him at Turn 10. The team also told him to push, as he needed to make it to the line to get another lap.

• Read also: Verstappen quickest in wet-dry quali, Leclerc on Belgian pole

"Whether it was his failure to slow and yield following his accident, or whether it was the team's failure to give information early enough that he could have pulled off earlier, or whether it was the instruction to push through the lap; in any case the Stewards determine that he unnecessarily impeded Leclerc."

Magnussen drops from 13th place on the grid to 16th as a result of the penalty.

"I hit the wall in Turn 9 exit and damaged the car, the rear wing and the floor," Magnussen told Motorsport.com in the paddock. "I made the best of it but shouldn't have been off, of course. The car was pretty damaged, I was in the tyre wall."

Having called for Magnussen to be penalised at the time, Leclerc was in a more forgiving mood later. "There's just one dry line, it's very difficult to go outside of the dry line on slicks," he acknowledged. "In normal circumstances you'd have moved away from the racing line but in those conditions it's not that easy."

Williams' Alexander Albon was also called in to chat with the stewards for a separate incident in qualifying in which he went off track in Q1 in the second sector, and rejoined on the racing line ahead of Pierre Gasly's Alpine.

"Albon left the circuit at turn 8 at the end of Q1. He then rejoined the circuit on the racing line," the official statement concluded, which handed Albon a reprimand for the offence

"While he was always going to have to rejoin on the line, the stewards feel that he could have done more to ensure that he rejoined safely while another car was approaching."

But the busy stewards took no action over a third incident in which Lewis Hamilton came back on track ahead of team mate George Russell, after the Mercedes pair explained that they had been doing their best not to impede Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas behind them.

"Hamilton explained that he had been warned [by his team] of the approach of Bottas and moved out of the way, in this case off track," the stewards noted. "Russell explained that he had the same warning but moved out of the way later.

"He also explained that as he was on the same [outlap] program as Hamilton he was fully aware of what Hamilton was doing and that at no point was the manoeuvre unsafe. The stewards agree and take no further action."

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