The Ferrari driver appeared to slow in the tunnel section as Norris’ rapid McLaren approached from behind on a flying lap in Q3, forcing him to take evasive action.
Leclerc had been set to line up third for his home race, but will now drop to sixth. Norris will start 10th for Sunday’s race.
The FIA stewards said Leclerc “had finished his final lap of Q3 and was in the Turn 4 through Turn 10 complex. Norris was on a fast lap and caught Leclerc in the middle of the tunnel and was clearly impeded.”
They added: “Both drivers agreed that there was little that Leclerc could have safely done in the tunnel to avoid impeding Norris, given the difficulty in vision due to the light entering and in the tunnel and the change of lines from one side of the tunnel to the other.
“In fact, the Stewards observed that Leclerc reacted in a sensible way to a blue flag displayed by the marshals, but at this point it was too late.”
The FIA document added that the stewards had reviewed Leclerc’s radio and found Ferrari had failed to give him any warning about Norris’ approach until Norris was already directly behind him.
They said: “Further, the discussion during the preceding portion of the track was entirely about competing drivers, not the traffic behind, which is a critical task at this track.
Source: Autosport