By the “letter of the law” in F1’s rulebook, Anthony Davidson says Charles Leclerc has a right to feel hard done by in his late-race incident with Alex Albon at Imola.

But as a “racer”, he says the Monegasque driver should’ve given Albon room.

Rulebook or racer question in Charles Leclerc v Alex Albon battle

Fighting over fourth place in the closing laps of Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Albon attacked Leclerc at the overtaking spot of the day, Tamburello.

Going around the outside of the Ferrari driver, he found the door closing on him as Leclerc refused to give him any room, muscling Albon off the track.

Albon went off into the gravel and, to add to his annoyance, lost a position to Lewis Hamilton.

He told Williams: “That wasn’t fair.”

Shortly after, Hamilton also overtook Leclerc, who was then informed he was under investigation, before Ferrari told him to give the position to Albon. He was fuming.

“That’s how racing is now? What did I do wrong? This is a f**king joke!” said Leclerc.

Crossing the line in sixth place behind Albon, the stewards only then ruled that no further action was required.

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Speaking to the media, including PlanetF1.com, after the race, Leclerc maintained his belief that he had done nothing wrong as the corner was his.

“It’s true we all have the rules in our heads and we always try to play with them,” he said. “Which is what I was trying to do today.

“Sometimes on those rules you speak about a centimetre is enough to be within the rules or without the rules. Judging it at 250 [KPH] is a bit tricky.

“I thought I was just in. Obviously, from outside it doesn’t look so nice because there’s one car in the gravel. But I’ll look back at it and I’m always very honest with myself.

“If I think that I’ve done a mistake, I’ll say it to Alex. But for now, I don’t think I did.”

Davidson agrees with the Ferrari driver that he did nothing wrong as, by “the letter of the law”, the corner was his as he was back ahead of Albon. Marginally, but ahead.

However, take the law out of it, and the former F1 driver has a different view on the incident.

“Vulnerable to the threat of Albon on fresher tyres as they headed down towards the Tamburello chicane, Albon tries once again around the outside,” Davidson said as he analysed the incident for Sky F1.

“Now we’re in this situation where who is the overtaker, and who’s the defender? And how much of a gap is between them, if the overtaker does actually make a gap between themselves before heading into the corner, and therefore who becomes the overtaker?

“Albon is the overtaker on the outside, because Leclerc is hovering somewhere to his left-hand side at this point. As they come to the apex of the corner, the critical apex of the corner, he is still there on his left-hand side.

“So now, as the rule says, the overtaker, if going around the outside, has to have the wheel of the other car at your mirror, you’ve got to get your mirror alongside at least their wheel at the apex.

“So he has been ahead has Albon before they get there, but when they get to the middle point of corner [Leclerc slightly ahead], it’s like Leclerc said, it’s very close.”

Posing the question “was he far enough ahead by the letter of the law”, Davidson continued: “If I throw that rule book away for a moment, which I’m sure a lot of you will do at home and you just look at it as pure racing moment, I actually think Albon should have been given enough room here to go around the outside, in all honesty, and he wasn’t.

“But knowing the rules, like I do, like all of these guys do, hence Leclerc’s message on the radio, ‘these are the rules we’re racing to so I’m kind of entitled to claim that as my corner’. That’s what we had.

“And this is the moment where he begrudgingly lets through the Williams. Little did they know that the stewards were going to make the decision afterwards, no further investigation, must hurt a little bit, but I do think that Ferrari probably did the right thing anyway.

“I see it from all sides there. As a racer, I think Albon deserved the corner. And if it was me, I’d be annoyed if I was Albon. But by the letter of the law, it was close, I think it was just a battle in Leclerc’s favour.”

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