Formula 1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli has been handed a three-place grid penalty for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix after stewards found him guilty of failing to slow sufficiently under yellow flags during Saturday's qualifying session at the Hungaroring.
The Mercedes driver, who had provisionally risen to third on the grid following Lewis Hamilton's separate penalty for impeding, will now drop to seventh place for the start of the race.
The yellow flags were triggered when Red Bull's Max Verstappen spun at the final corner at the end of Q3. Antonelli was investigated post-qualifying and ultimately found to have breached Appendix H, Article 2.5.5 b) of the International Sporting Code.
Stewards reviewed telemetry data which confirmed that Antonelli did lift off the throttle earlier than on his previous push lap upon seeing the yellow flags. However, they determined the reduction in speed was "insufficient and unsustained." The data showed that while the Italian lifted 16 metres earlier and was 14 km/h slower entering the yellow flag sector, his car was actually 3 km/h faster when passing the scene of Verstappen's incident due to reduced brake application entering the corner. His mini sector time was only 0.03 seconds slower than his fastest through that same sector.
"The FIA representatives noted that the speed reduction in the mini sector was less than 1%," the stewards' document read.
The recommended penalty under the guidelines was five grid positions, but the stewards applied mitigation, noting that Antonelli did make some reduction in speed and had "limited time and distance to react."
Antonelli himself insisted after qualifying that he had lifted. "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," he told Sky Sports F1. "P3 would have been for sure but I don't think pole position."
The 19-year-old also received a penalty point on his licence, bringing him to two for the current 12-month period. In a separate incident during qualifying, he was issued a warning for driving unnecessarily slowly on an in-lap.
The reshuffled grid sees McLaren's Oscar Piastri gain a place to start third alongside Verstappen, while Antonelli's team-mate George Russell — who trails the Italian by 50 points in the championship — will line up sixth.
Antonelli now faces a tougher challenge from seventh on the grid as he looks to extend his championship lead at the Hungaroring on Sunday.
Sources
- https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1101826/1/f1-stewards-deliver-verdict-kimi-antonelli-yellow-flag-incident
- https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/antonelli-hit-with-grid-penalty-for-hungarian-gp-after-yellow-flag-breach-in-qualifying.1C9AT9OzLEOIUNzDfTsgdL
