The investigation and the acquittal
Andrea Kimi Antonelli will start regularly from second position in tomorrow’s Sprint. The Mercedes Italian had been placed under investigation by the stewards for an alleged impeding action that was said to have been committed against Lando Norris during SQ2. The stewards, however, after analyzing video footage, telemetry and team radio, agreed with the Brackley team’s representative, who had already defended himself in post-qualifying interviews by claiming that the world champion was not on a fast lap but ‘simply’ on an out-lap. Norris himself confirmed this version of events, as explained in the official document released by the FIA.
Read more Vasseur: “We will analyze the data to understand what happened to Leclerc”
“The driver of car 1 (Lando Norris) told us that he was performing a “warm-up lap” and not a fast lap – reads the note released by the stewards – in other words, he was not actively trying to achieve a significant time when car 12 (Kimi Antonelli) exited the pit lane and entered the track. If car 1 had been on a fast lap, given the position of car 12 on the track, car 12 would have unnecessarily impeded car 1. In light of the clear position taken by the driver of car 1, according to which he had not been impeded by car 12 as he was not trying to achieve a significant lap time, we have taken no further action“.
Read more Mercedes dominance in qualifying, strong on the straight thanks to the corners: Ferrari, work to do
