However, the stewards have now confirmed that he too must serve a three-place grid penalty, having been found guilty of failing to slow sufficiently for yellow flags at the end of qualifying, when Max Verstappen spun off track. Antonelli said afterwards that he felt he had lifted off the throttle enough, but the stewards have come to a different conclusion.
They have ordered Antonelli to serve a three-place grid penalty which drops him from fourth on the grid to seventh, below team-mate and title rival George Russell. Antonelli has also seen a penalty point added to his racing licence, taking him up to four for the last 12 months. Any driver who reaches a total of 12 penalty points before they expire incurs an automatic one-race ban.
Explaining why Antonelli had been penalised, the stewards wrote: “The driver of Car 12 [Antonelli] stated that on seeing the yellow flag and light panel, he lifted off the throttle earlier than his previous push lap. This was verified by the telemetry. However, the reduction in speed occurred for a very short period and, in fact, the car’s speed when passing the scene of the incident involving Car 3 [Verstappen], was slightly higher than that on the previous push lap.
“The mini sector time was only 0.03 second slower than his best time for that mini sector, and whilst, because he had lifted 16 metres earlier, he was 14 km/h slower entering the yellow flag sector, but was 3 km/h faster when passing the incident site due to less application of the brakes entering the corner. The FIA representatives noted that the speed reduction in the mini sector was less than 1 percent.
“The stewards considered this incident to be different to other incidents that have resulted in no further action, because unlike those cases, there was no significant speed delta through the mini sector compared to the driver’s previous fastest time under similar circumstances.”
The stewards did go on to confirm, though, that they had been lenient on Antonelli all the same as the usual punishment for such an infringement is usually more severe. They explained: “The recommended penalty according to the penalty guidelines, for this offence, is a drop of five grid positions.
“However in mitigation of penalty, we considered that the driver did make a reduction in speed, albeit, in our determination, an insufficient and unsustained one. Further, the driver had limited time and distance to react. Hence a lower penalty is applied.”