Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc disqualified from Chinese Grand Prix as Ferrari punished for rule breaks

Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly have all been disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix.

Hamilton was found to have a skid block breach, while Leclerc and Apline star Gasly were found to be underweight.

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Leclerc had finished fifth ahead of Ferrari teammate Hamilton in sixth, earning ten and eight points respectively.

However, the Italian squad now lose those combined 18 points due to the infringements.

Leclerc running a risk was first mentioned by talkSPORT when he clashed with Hamilton on lap one, but decided not to pit.

A statement explaining Hamilton's punishment said: "A document released following the hearing reads: “The plank assembly of Car 44 was measured and found to be 8.6mm (LHS), 8.6mm (car centerline) and 8.5mm (RHS). This is below the minimum thickness of 9mm specified under Article 3.5.9 of the Technical Regulations.

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“During the hearing the team representative confirmed that the measurement is correct and that all required procedures were performed correctly. The team also acknowledged that there were no mitigating circumstances and that it was a genuine error by the team.

“The Stewards determine that Article 3.5.9 of the FIA Formula 1 Technical Regulations has been breached and therefore the standard penalty of a disqualification needs to be applied for such an infringement.”

Gasly, meanwhile, didn't lose any points as he was out of scoring positions in 11th, but he could have jumped up to ninth had he not been disqualified and the Ferraris were.

The disqualifications mean that Haas’ Esteban Ocon records an impressive fifth, while teammate and young British rookie Oliver Bearman claims four points in eighth.

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The mood had been increasing at Ferrari during an improved weekend where Hamilton won Saturday's sprint race, although it doesn't go down on his win record.

Yet there were signs of positivity after a disappointing opener in Australia where Leclerc finished eighth and Hamilton tenth on his Scuderia debut.

Oscar Piastri won Sunday's feature race ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris, while Mercedes' George Russell completed the podium.

Reigning four-time world champion Max Verstappen was fourth in his Red Bull, having fought with Leclerc through the latter stages of the race.

Yet over two hours after the chequered flag had fallen Leclerc was called into the FIA stewards room along with Hamilton and Gasly.

It then emerged that all three had been given disqualifications, re-jigging the race results dramatically.

In a statement, Ferrari later said: "Following the FIA post-race scrutineering both our cars were found not to conform to the regulations for different reasons.

"Car 16 was found to be underweight by 1 kg and car 44’s rearward skid wear was found to be 0.5mm below the limit.

"Charles was on a one-stop strategy today and this meant his tyre wear was very high, causing the car to be underweight.

"With regard to Lewis’ skid wear, we misjudged the consumption by a small margin.

"There was no intention to gain any advantage.

"We will learn from what happened today and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes again.

"Clearly it’s not the way we wanted to end our Chinese GP weekend, neither for ourselves, nor for our fans whose support for us is unwavering."