The Saturday of the Hungarian GP never ends
The Saturday of the Hungarian GP qualifying never ends. After the three grid position penalties inflicted by Race Control on Lewis Hamilton, guilty of having impeded Oscar Piastri on his last lap in Q3, the Federation does not spare Andrea Kimi Antonelli either: like the Ferrari driver, the 19-year-old Italian has also dropped three positions on the starting grid, thus slipping from fourth to seventh on the grid, but not for impeding. The Italian is instead paying for having improved on his last qualifying lap despite the yellow flag displayed by the marshals at turn-14 due to Max Verstappen‘s spin.
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Evidently, therefore, Antonelli’s explanations must not have convinced the FIA, which had summoned Kimi to Race Control in the afternoon, delaying the final decision until 7:27 PM (almost two and a half hours after the Q3 checkered flag). Unlike what happened in the past, it does not appear from the micro-sectors that the Bolognese driver slowed down sufficiently respecting the danger indication shown by the marshals.
FIA official statement on Kimi Antonelli’s penalty
Below is an excerpt from the text of the International Federation’s statement certifying Kimi Antonelli’s penalty: “The driver stated that, seeing the yellow flag and the light panel, he lifted off the throttle earlier than on his previous qualifying lap, and this is indeed shown by the telemetry. However, the speed reduction is for a very short period and, in fact, the speed at the incident location was slightly higher than on the previous qualifying lap. The micro-sector time was only 0.03 seconds slower than his best time and, despite having lifted off the throttle 16 meters earlier and being 14 km/h slower, at the entry to the sector marked by the yellow flag he was instead 3 km/h faster at the incident location due to less braking on corner entry”.
“The FIA – the official statement continues – notes that the speed reduction in the micro-sector was less than 1%. The Stewards believe that this incident is different from others that did not result in penalties, as, unlike those cases, there is no significant speed differential in the micro-sector compared to the fastest time previously recorded in similar circumstances. According to the relevant guidelines, the recommended penalty for this infringement is a 5-position grid drop, but as a mitigating factor, we considered that the driver did indeed reduce speed, although, in our judgment, insufficiently and not prolonged. This is why a lighter penalty is applied”.
Who benefits from Hamilton’s and Antonelli’s penalties
The main beneficiaries are Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen, who, originally fifth and sixth at the end of qualifying, are promoted to third and fourth place, effectively gaining a row on the grid. For the Italian Mercedes driver, the race therefore becomes even more challenging as he will start behind his teammate George Russell, who is in turn promoted to sixth place alongside Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton. Andrea Kimi Antonelli is also officially reprimanded with a formal warning for not having respected the race director’s guidelines, driving too slowly on his in-lap after the end of Q3.
Read more Piastri on Hamilton’s impeding: “Simple, Lewis didn’t look in his mirrors”
