Formula One championship leader Kimi Antonelli has been penalized by three places on the grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix for breaking the rules during qualifying on Saturday.
An investigation following qualifying found that Antonelli failed to slow enough for yellow flags to be raised when Red Bull’s Max Verstappen spun in Q3, in breach of Appendix H, Article 2.5.5 b) of the International Sporting Code and B1.8.4a of the FIA F1 Rules.
After considering all the available evidence and making a decision, the stewards explain in the document: “The driver of Car 12 (Antonelli) stated that upon seeing the yellow flag and light bar, he released the throttle earlier than on the previous lap. This was confirmed by telemetry.
“However, the reduction in speed occurred for a very short period and in fact the speed of the car when passing the scene of the incident involving Car 3 (Verstappen) was slightly higher than on the previous push lap.
“The mini-sector time was just 0.03 seconds slower than his best mini-sector time and although, having climbed 16 meters earlier, he was 14 km/h slower entering the yellow flag sector, (he) was 3 km/h faster passing the scene due to less use of the brakes entering the corner.
“FIA representatives noted that the reduction in speed in the mini sector was less than 1%.
“The stewards considered this incident to be different from other incidents which did not lead to further action as, unlike these cases, there was no significant difference in mini-sector speed compared to the rider’s previous best time in similar circumstances.
“The recommended penalty under the penalty rules for this offense is a demotion of five places on the grid, however, in order to mitigate the penalty, we considered that the driver did reduce his speed, although in our opinion not enough and unsustainably.
“In addition, the driver had limited time and distance to react. Therefore, a lower penalty applies.”
In another qualifying incident, Antonelli was warned by the stewards for driving unduly slow on the lap.