Charles Leclerc has been hit with a 10 place grid penalty for Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after the Ferrari driver took on a new energy store, a big blow to the team’s hopes in the constructors’ battle with McLaren.
The Monegasque was forced to wait in the pits for the first 20 minutes of FP1 in Abu Dhabi while Ferrari dealt with a suspected battery issue on his car – he did get the opportunity to drive on track with his younger brother, Arthur Leclerc.
However, in order to fix the problem, he has now exceeded the allocation of two energy stores per season and must serve the grip drop which will force him into a massive recovery drive if Ferrari want to keep their championship hopes alive.
The Maranello team are just 21 points behind McLaren in the battle to be Constructors’ champions but will need to have a near perfect weekend in order to maximise their hopes with the expected penalty set to be a massive spanner in the works…
Leclerc demonstrated strong pace in the first practice session despite his delay in getting out on track as he topped the timesheets with a margin of 0.221s to McLaren’s Lando Norris.
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