Kimi Antonelli handed significant Hungarian GP grid penalty

Kimi Antonelli has been issued a grid penalty for the Hungarian Grand Prix following a post-qualifying investigation.

The championship leader ended the session in fourth place as Mercedes was defeated in qualifying for the first time this year.

Shortly after the end of the outing, Antonelli was flagged for an alleged yellow flag infringement and was summoned to the stewards.

The incident related to a moment that occurred at the end of Q3 when Max Verstappen spun at the final corner.

After reviewing the evidence, the stewards found that Antonelli was guilty of an offence and delivered him a three-place grid drop.

Ruling that he did not do enough to back off when passing by Verstappen's stricken car, the stewards stated:“ 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.”

Antonelli was the second driver to be handed a grid drop, with Lewis Hamilton also deemed guilty of an offence.

In addition to the grid drop, Antonelli has been issued one penalty point on his super licence.