Oscar Piastri has lost his front-row starting slot at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix following a stewards' investigation.
During Q1, Piastri appeared to block Haas driver Kevin Magnussen at Turn 2, and unnecessarily impeded Magnussen, who was eliminated.
Piastri would go on to qualify within a tenth of pole-sitter Max Verstappen, after an impressive weekend performance armed with the whole package of McLaren upgrades.
In their investigation, the stewards found that Piastri was exiting the pits with Magnussen on a quick lap, and accepted his explanation that he could not see Magnussen due to the layout of the track, something Magnussen also accepted.
Upon seeing the Danish driver, Piastri tried to accelerate away but had already impeded the Haas driver, but crucially was not told by the team until it was too late that Magnussen was approaching, with a 140kph speed difference between the two.
The stewards felt that as it was clear Magnussen was on a fast lap, and that other drivers were warned in time of those on flying laps to avoid impeding, the lack of a warning from McLaren to Piastri constituted an "unnecessary impeding."
As a result of the decision, Lando Norris moves up to second, Charles Leclerc third and Carlos Sainz fourth on the grid with Piastri dropping to fifth.
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tushar-kathe#83489
Had it been Ferrari or Max there would be no punishment. FIA should think it should be same no reprimand for others and punishment for others. They are afraid that with no Ferrari in top 3, but they will depend in race tomorrow.
tushar-kathe#83489
We can clearly see double standards from FIA. When Piastri was hit by Sainz ( Ferrari), he received 5 sec penalty whereas generally it is 10 sec. FIA please stop other teams let Ferrari, Mercedes and Redbull run because you always penalized others. So Alonso was right in hitting back at FIA. You are lineant when Ferrari or Redbull is involved and harsh when they are on receiving end.
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Guy “Polo”
This is ridiculous. The question of a penalty should have been decided within a few minutes of the infraction . Ridiculous to wait till everyone has gone home. FIA get your act together.