Leclerc and Gasly facing Chinese GP disqualification

Charles Leclerc will likely lose his fifth-place finish in Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix as his car was found to be below the FIA’s minimum weight limit after the race.

Leclerc suffered damage to the left-hand side of his front wing after making contact with the right rear of Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton through the elongated Turns 1-3 on the opening lap.

As he was still competitive with the damage, Ferrari elected not to change Leclerc’s front wing at his one and only pitstop, fearing the track position loss that the extra time to change the front sign would result in.

Leclerc felt he had the pace to challenge for victory without the damage, instead he dropped a place to Max Verstappen late in the race and took the chequered flag in fifth place.

He’s highly likely to lose that fifth-place finish as after the race Ferrari was required to fit the spare front wing - 0.2kg heavier than the damaged one, according to the FIA - and the car was then found to be below the minimum weight limit of 800kg.

The car weighed in at 799.0kg once the required two-litre sample of fuel was taken out of the car, 1kg below the minimum allowance.

Leclerc’s Ferrari wasn’t the only car to fall foul of this as Pierre Gasly, who finished 11th and may have inherited a point if Leclerc was disqualified, was also found to have an underweight car by 1kg.

Both drivers have been referred to the stewards - with Leclerc’s summons scheduled for 6.45pm local time and Gasly for 15 minutes later.

George Russell lost victory at Spa to the same rule last year, with Sebastian Vettel’s exclusion from second place at the 2021 Hungarian GP among the other recent notable cases.