Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas penalized
Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas have been given a grid penalty for not respecting the yellow flag at the end of Q3.
At the end of Q3, Pierre Gasly triggered a yellow flag after breaking his front wing and blowing out his front right tire, three drivers were suspected of not having slowed down.
Max Verstappen, Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz were expected in front of the stewards today and officials have made their decision regarding their penalties.
Verstappen 7th, Bottas 5th
The Red Bull driver himself received the most severe penalty with a 5-place grid drop. The Dutchman claimed not to have seen any light signals but his excuse was not accepted.
Lewis Hamilton’s teammate has been penalized with a grid drop of 3 places. The driver acknowledged that he had not noticed the yellow flag displayed at Point 16.6 and admitted that he had not slowed down as required in the yellow flag zone, despite seeing Car 10 stopped on the pit straight, explains the statement from the stewards. Unlike his teammate at Red Bull, he admitted his mistake.
Finally, Carlos Sainz has been cleared by the stewards. The driver stated that even though he did not see the yellow flag, he saw that Car 10 was stopped on the right side of the pit straight. Therefore, he felt there was a possibility of a yellow flag in that area. He then significantly reduced his speed in that specific mini-sector. The stewards confirmed this with telemetry. He therefore complied with the Race Director’s Notes and Appendix H of the International Sporting Code.”
With these penalties, the starting grid is completely disrupted. Lewis Hamilton keeps his pole position, but will have Pierre Gasly by his side for the first time on the front row. Fernando Alonso takes over 3rd place. Valtteri Bottas inherits 5th place while Max Verstappen drops to 7th place. A comeback operation for the Dutchman?
