Kimi Antonelli was handed another punishment by the stewards following an investigation by the FIA into Saturday’s qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Antonelli was the fourth fastest driver in qualifying but was handed a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race.
The penalty means that Antonelli will start in seventh place on the grid as he looks to get another win under his belt after his victory in Belgium last weekend. It was not just Antonelli who was handed a penalty by the stewards during qualifying at Hungaroring, with Lewis Hamilton also forced to start further back on the grid. Hamilton was second-fastest in qualifying, but the Ferrari driver was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Oscar Piastri and will now start the race in fifth.
Antonelli was penalised after failing to slow down sufficiently for the yellow flags at the end of qualifying, which resulted in Max Verstappen spinning off the track.
The report from the stewards has also confirmed that Antonelli has been handed a second punishment, with the Mercedes driver receiving a penalty point, which is his fourth across a 12-month period.
Explaining the reason for handing Antonelli a grid penalty, the stewards confirmed in their verdict: “The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 12 (Kimi Antonelli), team representative, the FIA F1 Race Director and the Sporting Director of the FIA Single Seater.
“Department, and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry and in-car video evidence.
“The driver of Car 12 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, 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%. 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 recommended penalty according to the penalty guidelines, for this offence, is a drop of 5 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.”