The stewards have explained why they issued a five-second time penalty to Charles Leclerc for leaving the track on the first lap of the race.

Leclerc took the lead off his team mate Lewis Hamilton when both drivers went off at turn four on the first lap. The stewards later handed Leclerc a five-second time penalty for the incident.

Hamilton initially held his lead from pole position but Leclerc, who started third, was immediately on his tail. The pair fought for position through the first three corners, then Leclerc attacked Hamilton on the outside approaching turn four.

Both drivers ran wide onto the run-off area. Hamilton rejoined in turn five but was unable to prevent Max Verstappen from overtaking him. Leclerc missed turn five and rejoined further ahead in the lead.

Before the race, the stewards issued a special warning to drivers about how the first corners would be policed at starts and restarts. This stated that any driver who gained a position by leaving the track at turn four must return the position before turn 12, which Leclerc did not do.

The stewards penalised Leclerc for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. However Hamilton remained frustrated that Leclerc passed him off-track. “The stewards are basically handing Charles this win,” he told his team before his first pit stop. “We agreed in the drivers’ briefing.”

The stewards ruled “both cars entered turn four with excessive speed and therefore neither would have been able to make the corner on track, as demonstrated by the fact that car 44 [Hamilton] which was on the inside, had to go off track to make the corner.

“Car 16 [Leclerc] was therefore not entitled to claim the corner due to the excessive entry speed. The driver then completed an overtake whilst off track and accordingly this warrants a penalty.

“The baseline penalty guideline is 10 seconds however in mitigation is the fact that car 44 was also off track on the inside of car 16 and this occurred early in the first lap.”

It is the second year in a row Hamilton has been frustrated by his team mate’s tactics on the first lap in Mexico. Last year he repeatedly asked why the stewards had not taken action against drivers who went off the track at turn one, pointed out he was ahead of Leclerc before his team mate went off.

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