McLaren lodge protest over Austrian qualifying result

McLaren is protesting the results of qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix after Oscar Piastri had his final push lap deleted for a track limits violation.

The Australian driver ran wide of the white line at Turn 6 in Q3, which saw him drop from third on the grid to seventh.

The 23-year-old expressed his frustration at the situation immediately after the session, saying: "For me, it is embarrassing, we do all this work on track limits, put gravel in places and I didn't even go off the track, I stayed on the track," to Sky Sports F1.

Team principal Andrea Stella had visited the stewards to better understand the decision, and the Woking squad has since moved to have Piastri's lap re-instated.

"We have sought clarification," Stella told media including RacingNews365. "In particular we wanted to look at the evidence whereby the car was beyond the track limits beyond any reasonable doubt.

"I cannot say that the beyond reasonable doubt is satisfied. There's a couple of principles: one is that the system used needs to have adequate resolution, and the second is that the methodology used for one car needs to be applicable to all cars...

"We are normally very supportive of the FIA, we always recognise that everyone is trying their best, but in this case, we couldn't agree that the car is beyond the track limit beyond any reasonable doubt and satisfying the two conditions I said before, so the discussion is still ongoing."

A McLaren team representative was called to the stewards at 19:35 local time.

This article will be updated.