Isack Hadjar discovers podium fate after Azerbaijan GP investigation

Isack Hadjar has kept his third-place podium finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after a stewards' investigation. 

The Frenchman, on his return to action following missing the last three grands prix with a wrist injury, finished third in Baku behind race-winner George Russell and Hadjar's team-mate, Max Verstappen.

However, post-race, the stewards summoned Hadjar over a practice start infringement before the grand prix and for failing to follow the race director's instructions on where to conduct the practice starts. 

In their investigation, the stewards found that during the reconnaissance laps, Hadjar did not perform a practice start, and as per the instructions, should have crossed the white line separating pit exit from the track at the "earliest opportunity to join the normal racing line."

Hadjar remained within the pit-exit road, and passed to the right of the cars ahead before rejoining the track and, as such, had failed to follow the instructions. 

However, "mitigating circumstances" were present, as Hadjar had to abort the plan to do a practice start, and the panel accepted that Hadjar was "distracted" in his failure to follow the rules.

"While the driver remains responsible for complying with the Race Director’s instructions, the Stewards considered these circumstances sufficient to mitigate the penalty. Having also considered comparable previous incidents, the Stewards therefore determine that a Warning, rather than a Driving Reprimand, is appropriate," concluded the document. 

The article continues below. 

Elsewhere, Carlos Sainz of Williams will keep his 10th place and first point since Monaco after being investigated for a similar offence. 

Here, it was found that Sainz had been issued with an incorrect instruction by the team and followed this, leading to the breach. As such, as "lesser penalty" was appropriate. 

Valtteri Bottas escaped with a 'no further action' after his late accident, crashing into the Turn 15 wall. 

It was found that after climbing from the Cadillac, he stayed in the vicinity of the car, inspecting it rather than moving to a place of safety immediately. 

He apologised for this and told the stewards he would immediately move to place of safety in future. 

Finally, Gabriel Bortoleto received a 10-second time penalty for overtaking under yellow flags.

The Audi driver was handed the drop for passing Sergio Perez under yellow flags during the first lap after the restart. 

It was found that Bortoleto was unsure if the safety car had been deployed due to conflicting information as boards showed it had been, when in reality, it had not. 

Believing the yellows to be linked to the safety car deployment, and that there wasn't a dangerous situation, he overtook Perez.

For this, he received a 10-second drop, as he fell from 13th on the road to 15th, with Oscar Piastri and Perez shuffling forward one spot each.