Antonelli hit with grid penalty for Hungarian GP after yellow flag breach in Qualifying

F1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli has been given a three-place grid penalty for the Hungarian Grand Prix after a rule violation during Saturday’s Qualifying session.

In a post-Qualifying investigation, Antonelli was found to have failed to slow sufficiently for yellow flags brought out when Red Bull’s Max Verstappen spun in Q3, breaching Appendix H, Article 2.5.5 b) of the International Sporting Code and B1.8.4a of the FIA F1 Regulations.

Antonelli had qualified fourth fastest and provisionally gained a spot on the grid due to Lewis Hamilton’s three-place drop for impeding McLaren rival Oscar Piastri at the end of Q3.

However, the Italian will now fall back down the grid to P7 for Sunday’s race, adding to the task ahead of him as he looks to extend his lead in the Drivers’ Championship standings.

After reviewing all available evidence and reaching their decision, the stewards’ document explained: “The driver of Car 12 (Antonelli) 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 (Verstappen) 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, [he] 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 offence, is a drop of five grid positions, however in mitigation of penalty, we considered that the driver did 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 is applied.”

In a separate Qualifying incident, Antonelli was given a warning by the stewards for driving unnecessarily slowly on an in-lap.