Red Bull chief calls for ‘drastic’ Leclerc punishment after qualifying incident

Red Bull chief Helmut Marko believes that Charles Leclerc should be handed a 'drastic' punishment after the Ferrari driver missed the FIA weighbridge during qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix.

In his home Grand Prix, Leclerc secured pole position for the second year in a row following a chaotic qualifying that ended prematurely after three cars crashed in the final minute of the session.

Sergio Perez lost control of his Red Bull in the final corner before the tunnel section in Monaco, with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz then hitting him while he was stationary – and Alpine's Fernando Alonso hit the barrier elsewhere on the circuit.

While Leclerc has predominantly been the fastest across the weekend, it wasn't a day without incident for the championship hopeful as he missed a message ordering him to attend the FIA weighbridge during Q2 and had to be pushed back by his Ferrari team.

Leclerc would have been handed a significant punishment had he made his way to the Ferrari garage, with previous infringements seeing drivers start the race in the pit lane, but he escaped such punishment after the quick action from his team.

However, Marko believes that shouldn't have been the case and that Leclerc should have been issued a 'drastic' punishment when speaking to Austrian outlet ORF, saying: "If you punish this consistently, as you do in the junior classes, then there will be a drastic penalty.

"He drove by. They didn't change the car, but according to the regulations, it should be a penalty. I don't wish it on him because he's had so much bad luck in Monte Carlo, but I don't think you can say that pushing back will solve this offence."

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However, Marko confirmed Red Bull will not be complaining to the stewards, adding: "I don't think we need to intervene. This was so clear. There are other teams that are also behind him and everyone is there interested in moving up the ranks. We are officially not going to do anything."

Leclerc explained that he missed the signals due to uncertainty on where they were positioned, saying: "It's a very tricky one here because we get into the pits and I actually don't even know where the panel is, whether it's on the right or left, but it's very far so you don't look in that direction.

"So actually I did not see at all that I was called to the weighbridge, but luckily for me the team saw the alarm and told me to stop. Then they pushed me back."

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