FIA make decision on Kimi Antonelli punishment after Lewis Hamilton Hungarian GP grid penalty
Lewis Hamilton was handed a three-place grid penalty ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix; now his drivers’ championship title rival, Kimi Antonelli, has received the same punishment.
The British driver had finished second in qualifying, just being pipped to pole by his compatriot and the current world driver champion Lando Norris.
Hamilton was investigated for impeding Oscar Piastri near the end of the session, as the McLaren driver started his push lap, impacting his qualifying time.
The British driver attempted to defend his actions immediately after the session, as reported by Planet F1.
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He said: “I was told literally when he was at the apex behind me, so I had no idea he was coming. Everyone came out behind me. I was the first out, so I thought everyone had finished their lap.
“I think Charles was the car that was behind me when I left the pit lane, as far as I was aware. Crazy because it’d been [a] clean [session] and obviously it wasn’t intentional.”
However, he was awarded a three-place grid penalty, which will impact his chances of winning the Hungarian Grand Prix for a ninth time.
However, the Italian driver and a Mercedes team representative had to report to the FIA after qualifying too, as the Australian was under two investigations for separate incidents during qualifying.
Kimi Antonelli handed a three-place grid penalty for the Hungarian Grand Prix
The FIA found the Mercedes driver guilty of not slowing down sufficiently under yellow flags in qualifying, and this has seen him handed a three-place grid penalty for the Hungarian Grand Prix. While the other investigation for failing to follow the Race Director’s instructions during qualifying result in the Italian being handed a warning.
Kimi Antonelli had finished fourth in the qualifying, but now with this three-place grid penalty, he will start from further back on Sunday’s race.
A statement from the FIA read: “The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 12 (Kimi Antonelli), team representative, the FIA F1 Race Director, and the Sporting Director of the FIA Single Seater Department and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, and in-car video evidence.
“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 seconds 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 offense, is a drop of 5 grid positions; however, in mitigation of the penalty, we considered that the driver did not 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 was applied.”
Brendan McGilligan