MONZA, Italy -- Oscar Piastri has dropped three places on the Italian Grand Prix grid to sixth after he was penalised for impeding Liam Lawson’s Red Bull during Q2 at Monza.
The McLaren driver qualified third in Saturday’s session despite making a mistake on his final run in Q3, but was penalised afterwards for an incident in the second part of qualifying involving Lawson’s Red Bull at the first chicane.
The penalty means Charles Leclerc is promoted to third place on the grid, Lewis Hamilton moves up to fourth and Max Verstappen will start fifth.
The stewards’ statement revealed Piastri was warned over team radio about the presence of rival cars as he left the pits, but the Australian claimed he did not realise they were on fast laps and therefore did not expect to block them in the first chicane.
“On leaving the pits, the driver of Car 81 [Piastri] was advised that ‘Verstappen, Lawson and [Carlos] Sainz just crossing, Sainz has pitted, just Verstappen and Lawson, watch out for them as you join,’” the stewards’ statement said.
“The driver of Car 81 stated that he was not alerted to the fact that VER and LAW were on push laps but realised as he was almost at Turn 1 that VER was on a push lap. He slowed significantly and kept to the right to allow VER to pass but was unable to do anything to avoid impeding LAW who was close behind.
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“The Stewards accept that with the information he had, and the situation he was placed in, the driver of Car 81 had, at this stage, no other options available and hence, inadvertently, and also unnecessarily, impeded Car 30.
“Therefore the standard penalty of a drop of 3 grid positions is imposed.”
Asked about the incident in a post-qualifying news conference, Piastri said: “Yeah, I was coming out of the pits, and the speed difference coming out of the pits is so big here, so I don’t really know where he came from.”
