On an extremely slippery circuit, Verstappen went deep into Turn 1 and forced polesitter Leclerc to go off the track with him, coming out of the corner in front of the Ferrari driver.
The incident was soon investigated by the FIA stewards but rather than giving the position back to Leclerc, Red Bull decided to cop a five-second penalty instead. Verstappen therefore enjoyed free air for the first stint as he tried to build a gap to offset the penalty taken the first pitstop.
While that plan failed as Leclerc fought back to reclaim the lead thanks to Ferrari's better use of the medium tyres, the Turn 1 clash renewed focus on the practice of drivers being able to cancel out penalties for illegal overtakes by gaining track position.
Last month, the issue also came up in Austin when George Russell purposefully passed Oscar Piastri off the track.
Leclerc felt it was right to penalise Verstappen, but argued that forcing him to give up the position would have been more fair.
"Obviously, it was on the limit, over the limit, and I think the five-second penalty is deserved. It was tight," Leclerc said.
"He paid a penalty and I think that was the right penalty to give.
Source: Autosport