F1 stewards take no action over Leclerc, Hartley crash

Formula 1 stewards have decided to take no further action following an investigation into the crash involving Charles Leclerc and Brendon Hartely in the closing stages of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Leclerc lost control of his Sauber car and slammed into the rear of Hartley’s Toro Rosso on the run down to the Nouvelle Chicane, ultimately causing the New Zealander to retire from 11th place. The Monaco stewards reviewed the incident but decided to hand out no punishments after it was discovered Leclerc had suffered a brake failure while exiting the tunnel section. 

An FIA notice read: ”The stewards reviewed video evidence and heard from the driver of car #16, Charles Leclerc, the driver of car #28, Brendon Hartley and team representatives and noted that the collision was caused by the failure of the left brake disc of car #16 and not through the fault of either driver.”

Leclerc said he was concerned he had a potential issue a few laps before the brake failure ultimately materialised. 

"Four laps before that I felt like the pedal was getting very long on the brakes, it was very inconsistent,” he explained.

"Even putting the same amount of pressure on the pedal, it was decelerating, not decelerating, decelerating, not decelerating. It was very difficult to manage, then at one point they just gave up.”

Hartley added Leclerc had explained the cause of the incident and apologised to him.

"I made a small mistake which allowed Charles to get a little bit closer and he said he had a brake failure so he apologised for that,” Hartley said. "I didn't see him coming at all, he came from a long way back, locked his front brake and took me out of the race.”

Hartley believes he would have been able to open up a five-second buffer over the Monegasque to finish ahead of him, having received a time penalty for speeding in the pitlane, though the Toro Rosso driver said he was mystified as to why he was penalised.

“With the issue he had, we probably would've finished five seconds ahead anyway. I was a bit confused because I didn't really think I sped in the pitlane, I was a bit surprised, I thought I had done everything OK.”