F1 driver was disqualified from Grand Prix for being 'too slow' before quitting sport altogether

A Formula 1 driver was once disqualified from a Grand Prix for driving too slowly - before deciding to quit the sport altogether.

The current era of F1 is as tightly-contested as it has been for a number of years, particularly in terms of qualifying.

At the Austrian Grand Prix, under a second separated first-placed Lando Norris and 20th-placed Nico Hulkenberg in Q1, albeit on the shortest track of the calendar.

You have to go back to the early 2010s to find much wider gaps between cars, as new teams Lotus, HRT and Virgin all struggled to get up to speed.

Their cars were dogged with handling problems and a general lack of speed on the straights, and they were a significant distance behind midfield teams at some early Grands Prix.

The FIA were forced to reintroduce a 107% rule, with drivers having to set a qualifying lap that is within 107% of the first-placed driver's time.

The rule has hardly been used in the modern day, but was also in place between 1996 and 2002 in response to fundamental changes to the sport.

Up until the mid-1990s, there would be far more Grand Prix entrants than spots on the grid, meaning selected cars would have to compete in pre-qualifying.

By the time of 1996, the amount of entrants matched the number of grid spots, with some drivers setting laps that were over seven seconds slower than the frontrunners.

But that number pales into insignificance compared to one driver that raced in the 1969 season.

British-Canadian driver Al Pease, 47, had previously entered two Grands Prix under a private entry, as was permitted under F1 rules at the time.

He had been a hugely successful single-seater driver in Canada and would be inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 1998. Pease also served in the British Army in India, Egypt and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

But Formula 1 was, sadly, a different story.

At his home race, the 1969 Canadian Grand Prix, Pease decided to enter using a chassis manufactured by the American company Eagle, and a Climax engine.

Climax had a legacy of producing race-winning F1 engines, and crowned world champions in Jack Brabham (1960) and Jim Clark (1963 and 1965).

But the manufacturer was on its way out of F1 by the 1969 season, and the Grand Prix in Montreal would prove to be its last.

Pease qualified in 17th out of 20 drivers, which may look solid on the face of it. But the Canadian was 11.1 seconds behind pole-sitter Jacky Ickx.

The three drivers behind him were 11.3 seconds, 12.3 seconds and 24 seconds behind, respectively.

He had previously entered the Canadian Grand Prix in 1967, finishing 43 laps behind the winner - largely due to a repeated battery problem which required him to pit and, as a private entrant, manually replace the battery himself before returning to the circuit.

In 1969, he didn't get the chance to complete as many laps.

On lap 23, Pease was black-flagged by the stewards after blocking Tyrrell's Jackie Stewart, who had already completed 46 laps and would go on to win that year's Drivers' Championship.

Team boss Ken Tyrrell lodged a protest after previous similar incidents involving other drivers, and Pease subsequently became the first driver to be disqualified for driving too slowly.

Pease was not given a ban by F1 for his disqualification, but never again attempted to enter a Grand Prix and was therefore likely blacklisted.