Three drivers have been handed grid penalties after qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Renault’s Jolyon Palmer, Manor’s Rio Haryanto and Sauber’s Felipe Nasr have all been demoted three places on the grid for ignoring the yellow flags that were in place at the end of Q1. They have also had two penalty points applied to each of their licences.
Palmer’s teammate Magnussen was cleared after being investigated for the same offence, as was Nico Hulkenberg who will keep his front row start.
The first part of qualifying ended under yellow flags after Carlos Sainz’s Toro Rosso suffered an engine failure and peeled off to the side of the circuit. For safety reasons, the drivers are supposed to significantly slow down when in a yellow flag zone and the stewards adjudged that Palmer, Haryanto and Nasr did not do so.
Overall five drivers have been handed grid drops for the race, with Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg forced to drop five positions for changing their gearboxes out of the allocated sequence. Due to the way the FIA apply penalties, it is believed that Rosberg will only drop four places.
The grid for tomorrow’s race will therefore be as follows:
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG Petronas, 1:07.922 (Q3)
- Nico Hulkenberg, Sahara Force India Mercedes, 1:09.285
- Jenson Button, McLaren Honda, 1:09.900
- Kimi Raikkonen, Scuderia Ferrari, 1:09.901
- Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer, 1:09.980
- Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG Petronas, 1:08.465 (5 place gearbox penalty)
- Valtteri Bottas, Williams Martini Mercedes, 1:10.440
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer, 1:11.153
- Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Ferrari, 1:09.781 (5 place gearbox penalty)
- Felipe Massa, Williams Martini Mercedes, 1:11.977
- Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 1:07.578 (Q2)
- Pascal Wehrlein, Manor Mercedes, 1:07.700
- Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1:07.850
- Fernando Alonso, McLaren Honda, 1:08.154
- Carlos Sainz Jr, Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari, No time
- Sergio Perez, Sahara Force India Mercedes, No time
- Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1:07.941 (Q1)
- Daniil Kvyat, Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari, 1:08.409
- Marcus Ericsson, Sauber Ferrari, 1:08.418
- Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1:07.965 (3 place grid penalty)
- Rio Haryanto, Manor Mercedes, 1:08.026 (3 place grid penalty)
- Felipe Nasr, Sauber Ferrari, 1:08.446 (3 place grid penalty)
