Hours later, the race direction decided to punish Sergio Pérez for exceeding track limits: he lost his Q3 laps and will start from 13th position
Hours after qualifying for the sprint race of the Austrian GP, the FIA (International Automobile Federation) decided to punish Sergio Pérez for exceeding track limits during Q2. As a punishment, the Mexican driver had his Q3 laps deleted, and will start from 13th position - where he was before the spin that caused the punishment.
The vice-leader of the championship was out of the qualifying space after eight minutes and had to set a spin, because the best one until that point was cancelled by the limits. He was behind Bottas and the Haas at that point.
The race management announced afterwards that they were evaluating whether Pérez disregarded track limits on the salvation lap - on the visuals, the feeling was that he did - but they changed nothing. The resolution was to recall the 32-year-old driver to the stewards' room after the qualifying session.
With the punishment given, Russell goes to fourth place and Ocon, Magnussen, Schumacher, Alonso, Hamilton, Galy, Albon and Bottas gain one position each.
Earlier in the day, 'Czech' stated that he no longer felt as comfortable with the RB18. "I don't feel as comfortable in the car as I did at the beginning of the year, let's say. So I think I first have to understand what's going on," he said in an interview with the Motorsport-Total website.
GRANDE PRÊMIO follows LIVE and INREAL TIME all the activities of the weekend's Austrian F1 GP. On Saturday, the second free practice opens the day at 7:30 am (GMT-3). The sprint race starts at 11:30am.