Andrea Kimi Antonelli has been demoted three grid positions for the Hungarian Grand Prix after being found guilty of speeding under yellow flags during qualifying. The Mercedes driver and Formula 1 world championship leader drops from fourth to seventh following the stewards' ruling, which described his attempt to slow down as "insufficient and unsustained."
The yellow flags were deployed at the final corner after Red Bull's Max Verstappen spun off track at the end of Q3. Antonelli, who had just begun his flying lap, came under investigation for failing to reduce his speed sufficiently under the warning signals.
"Looking at the lap, I got a gust of tail wind at Turn 9, lost a tenth there and at the last corner, from the previous lap, there was a good tenth-and-a-half because the lap before I didn't maximise the grip," Antonelli explained to Sky Sports F1 after qualifying. "The yellow flag came while I was entering the corner so I tried my best to lift. I did lift but gave up quite a bit of minimum speed compared to before. It was a shame."
Despite his explanation, the stewards determined that the speed reduction occurred for too brief a period. The official verdict stated that "the reduction in speed occurred for a very short period" and was not deemed sufficient. Alongside the grid drop, Antonelli also received a penalty point on his licence.
The penalty compounds a dramatic qualifying session that also saw Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton — Antonelli's former Mercedes team-mate who now leads the Italian team — hit with a separate three-place grid penalty for impeding McLaren's Oscar Piastri. With both sanctions applied, the starting grid features Lando Norris on pole ahead of Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, and Max Verstappen, with Antonelli lining up seventh behind Mercedes team-mate George Russell.
"It's tough to come out of qualifying with this result," said the Italian driver, who leads the drivers' championship by 45 points over Hamilton. "P3 would have been for sure but I don't think pole position. I would have been very close, probably half a tenth to Lando but still not good enough for pole."
The reshuffled grid sets up an intriguing Hungarian Grand Prix, with championship implications for both Mercedes and Ferrari.
Sources
- [Crash.net — F1 stewards deliver verdict on Kimi Antonelli yellow flag speeding](https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1101826/1/f1-stewards-deliver-verdict-kimi-antonelli-yellow-flag-incident)
- [Sky Sports F1 — Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Antonelli given Hungarian GP grid penalties](https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13566874/lewis-hamilton-kimi-antonelli-given-hungarian-gp-grid-penalties-which-shuffle-race-grid-headed-by-lando-norris)
