In qualifying on Friday, Charles Leclerc missed pole position by only 0.048 seconds, and the Monegasque will now only take up the sprint on Saturday from ninth place on the grid. The reason for this is a penalty that the Ferrari Formula 1 driver received.
Leclerc had actually qualified sixth in the sprint shootout on Saturday afternoon, but now has to drop three positions on the grid because he got in the way of McLaren driver Oscar Piastri at the end of SQ1.
The rationale of the race stewards reads: “The driver of Auto 81 [Piastri] stated that as he approached Turn 9 he saw car 16 going slowly and he had to brake, reducing his speed by around 45 km/h from the previous fast lap.”
The telemetry confirmed this statement. In the corresponding mini-sector, Piastri lost around half a second. For this he needed 5.3 instead of 4.8 seconds in the lap with the Leclerc incident.
Leclerc, on the other hand, explained that after turn 4 he had received no more information on the radio about traffic from his team. He stressed that he saw Piastri in the rear-view mirror at Turn 8 just as he was at Turn 7.
The verdict continued: “The team representative from Car 16 stated that the team could have communicated the rapid approach of car 81 better and the driver stated: ‘If I had been warned, I could have done something earlier.'”
Ferrari takes penalty
So Ferrari takes the penalty, but the stewards make it clear: “Even if the driver is not solely to blame and the lack of communication from the team was the main reason, a grid penalty must be imposed.”
This must exist, “since Auto 81 was ‘unnecessarily impeded’ because there is no doubt that the situation could have been avoided,” the statement said. Incidentally, Leclerc already knows this from the Monaco Grand Prix.
There, too, he had already received a grid penalty because the team had not informed him that Lando Norris was behind him on a fast lap. The scenario repeated itself in Spielberg with the second McLaren driver.
Formula 1: Nico Hülkenberg escapes a tougher penalty
Meanwhile, there is a fine for the Haas team after an incident with Nico Hulkenberg in the pits during the sprint shootout. The German had collided with a previously removed tire on his left side while driving out of the pits.
The US team has to pay 5,000 euros, but the fine is suspended until the end of the season. Here, the stewards’ justification states that Haas submitted “a comprehensive report on the team’s investigation into the incident.”
It was concluded that it was “an unfortunate and unique incident”. The left front wheel that had previously been removed from the car was “too close” to the car, while at the same time Hulkenberg had to drive out of the pits at a sharper angle.
The stewards are satisfied with the measures Haas has announced to prevent further incidents of this type. “These remedial actions include changing crew procedures and positioning during a pit stop,” it said.
The team escaped a harsher penalty.