Charles Leclerc escaped a grid penalty after hitting out at Lando Norris following a clash between the pair during a fiery practice at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Carlos Sainz topped FP3 in front of a baying home crowd at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, narrowly finishing ahead of Norris and Leclerc.

Meanwhile Max Verstappen, who extended his lead at the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings with victory last season, could only manage fourth.

Despite Sainz’ success, all eyes following the practice were on his Ferrari teammate following a coming together between Leclerc and Norris.

Throughout the final practice Leclerc appeared to be becoming increasingly frustrated with Norris, seemingly believing that he was being unfairly impeded by his rival.

+3

Charles Leclerc appeared to collide with Lando Norris during final practice at the Spanish Grand Prix

+3

Leclerc expressed his frustration with the McLaren driver with an x-rated comment on team radio

As Leclerc passed the McLaren driver at the entry to turns 7/8, he moved over and turned into Norris’ front wing, appearing to make visible contact before expressing his frustration over team radio.

‘F*****. I don’t understand why they did it.’ Leclerc said.

The Monegasque driver ultimately faced racing stewards for the incident, but was not handed a grid penalty – instead being issued a driving reprimand.

‘The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 16 (Charles Leclerc), the driver of Car 4 (Lando Norris), team representatives and reviewed video, team radio and in-car video evidence,’ said the stewards’ statement.

‘The driver of Car 16 stated that he got impeded by Car 4 into Turn 5 and that upset him. He then had to abort his flying lap and contended that, while trying to get off the racing line before Turn 7, he misjudged the position of his car and made slight contact with Car 4.

‘Irrespective of any possible intent, the Stewards consider the move made by Car 16, whilst not being dangerous, to be erratic and therefore issue a driving reprimand in line with precedents.’

Speaking on punditry following the incident, former F1 driver Karun Chandhok called Leclerc’s actions ‘unnecessary’.

‘Charles’ is the most unnecessary for me. He had already done his lap, he was on a cool lap, a second push.’ Chandhok said on Sky Sports.

Despite the controversy, Leclerc escaped a grid penalty with stewards ruling the incident ‘erratic’ but not ‘dangerous’

‘On his delta time, he was down at Turn 5. Maybe Lando would have cost him a little bit at Turn 5 but he wasn’t going to improve his lap time.

‘It just felt unnecessary coming into Qualifying.

‘There is only two hours in between, he has had to go up to the stewards, waste half an hour talking about this stuff, when you should be talking about putting yourself in the right position for Qualifying.’