Charles Leclerc has been summoned to the stewards for an alleged failure to follow the race director’s instructions during Sprint Qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.

The Shanghai International Circuit hosted the first Sprint Qualifying of the F1 2025 championship where Lewis Hamilton came to the fore to grab his first pole position as a Ferrari driver.

Charles Leclerc has been summoned to see the stewards

Although rivals and pundits predicted it would be McLaren who would dominate, that seemingly on the cards after Lando Norris finished FP1 half a second ahead of Leclerc, the Woking team were off in the pace in SQ3.

Instead, it was Hamilton who came through with a 1:30.849, a new lap record, to beat Max Verstappen by 0.018s.

As for Leclerc, he finished with the fourth fastest time, two-tenths down on his team-mate.

However, shortly after the chequered flag fell, the FIA announced that he was under investigation for allegedly exceeded the maximum time delta between Safety Car lines during Sprint Qualifying.

The stewards’ note read: ‘Alleged breach of Article 33.4 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations and Article 12.2.1 i) of the FIA International Sporting Code (non-compliance with the Race Director’s Event Notes, item 2, document 11).’

Lance Stroll was noted for the same alleged infringement and will also be off to see the stewards later. He qualified P10.

More to follow…

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