Charles Leclerc openly accepted blame for the disastrous conclusion to his Miami Grand Prix, stating that the mishap was "all on me" after he effectively threw away what had been a very strong performance. The Monegasque driver’s race unraveled in the final moments, culminating in a stewards' sanction that demoted him from a provisional fourth‑place finish to eighth in the official results.
Leclerc’s day began on a positive note. Starting from the second row, he quickly surged ahead to claim the lead, showcasing the speed of his SF‑26 on the high‑speed Miami circuit. A brief safety‑car period early in the race shuffled the order, and he found himself in third place behind Lando Norris and rookie Kimi Antonelli.
Despite the reshuffle, the Ferrari driver remained in contention and, as the race entered its closing stages, he was sitting in a podium‑locking third position. The penultimate lap, however, proved pivotal.
Oscar Piastri of McLaren executed a decisive overtake, nudging Leclerc down to fourth place. The young Australian’s move was clean, but it left Leclerc with a narrow margin and a sense of urgency to defend his position on the final lap.
Determined to keep his place, Leclerc pushed hard into Turn Three, but the extra pressure caused him to lose traction and spin into the wall. The impact damaged the front of his car, compromising its handling for the remaining corners.
Although the Ferrari was still able to limp across the finish line, the damage was evident. Leclerc struggled to negotiate the final two corners, allowing Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to slip past, dropping him to sixth place.
The situation grew more complicated when race officials opened an investigation into his post‑spin trajectory. They concluded that Leclerc had cut several corners in an attempt to stay on the racing line, thereby gaining an advantage despite the mechanical issues he claimed to be experiencing.
The stewards ultimately imposed a 20‑second time penalty—equivalent to a drive‑through—on Leclerc’s car. This sanction erased the points he would have earned for a fourth‑place finish and pushed him down two further spots, landing him in eighth place behind his teammate Lewis Hamilton and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto in the final classification. Speaking to Sky Sports F1 before the penalty was formally applied, a visibly frustrated Leclerc summed up his feelings: "It's all on me and I don’t have much to add other than that.
Very disappointed with my mistake. 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." When asked about the difficulty of handling the damaged car, Leclerc explained, "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." He told the stewards that the impact had compromised the car’s ability to take right‑hand turns, but the officials rejected this argument, stating that a mechanical issue does not excuse a driver from staying within the track limits. The stewards noted, "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," and therefore imposed the penalty. Ferrari’s overall weekend was further marred by Hamilton’s own struggles.
The British driver had suffered front‑end damage after an early‑lap contact with Franco Colapinto, yet he managed to finish the race in seventh place, nine seconds behind his teammate. Hamilton, who had already taken seventh in the preceding sprint race, described the weekend as "not a good one at all" and lamented the misfortune that plagued Sunday.
He added, "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." Hamilton also recounted the sequence that led to his own loss of positions: "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." Looking ahead, the Formula 1 calendar turns to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix, which will also feature a sprint race. Fans can catch the action live on Sky Sports F1 from May 22‑24, with streaming options available through NOW without a long‑term contract. The Miami incident serves as a stark reminder of how quickly fortunes can change in motorsport, and both Leclerc and Hamilton will be eager to regroup and extract maximum performance from their Ferraris in the upcoming races.