– At the Italian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri has to start from sixth place. Although the McLaren driver qualified in third place, Piastri was demoted by three places after the session. The reason for this is an incident in Q1.
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Piastri, according to the FIA’s reasoning based on paragraph B4.1.1, blocked Liam Lawson in his Red Bull on a flying lap. The McLaren driver had just left the pit lane and held up Lawson at the exit of the first chicane.
Why was Piastri penalized?
“The driver of car 81 stated that he was not informed that [Verstappen] and [Verstappen] were on a flying lap, but only noticed that [Verstappen] was on a flying lap when he was almost at turn 1,” the FIA explains.
“He significantly reduced his speed and kept to the right to let [Verstappen] pass, but could not do anything to avoid impeding [Lawson], who was closely behind him.”
Regarding this incident, Piastri said after the session: “The speed difference when you leave the pit lane here is just huge.”
“I didn’t even know where [Lawson] suddenly came from,” he said. At that time, it was not yet known what penalty Piastri would receive for his offense.
Furthermore, the reasoning states: “The race stewards acknowledge that the driver of car 81, given the information available to him and the situation he was in, had no other options at that time and therefore unintentionally and unnecessarily impeded car 30.”
“Therefore,” as explained by the FIA, “the standard penalty of a three-place grid drop is imposed.”
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Piastri starts behind the Ferraris
In the new starting grid, Piastri is now behind the two Ferrari drivers and Max Verstappen. Teammate Lando Norris will start the Grand Prix from position eight in the royal park.
Apart from the grid penalty, Piastri appears very confident before the race in Monza: “[Our long-run pace] is not as strong as that of Mercedes or Ferrari,” Piastri explained after the session in the official press conference.
The F1 show for the Italian Grand Prix
“But I think the first few laps tomorrow will be really chaotic. Therefore, the fastest car will not necessarily always lead the field.”
“Certainly,” Piastri admits, “we are not as strong as in the last few races. But I think it will be an interesting [Grand Prix]. We just have to take our chances when we get them.”
Later, Piastri emphasizes: “Honestly, we are perhaps a bit stronger here than we expected, and the entire field is also closer together than expected.”
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At the end of Q3, all ten drivers were within exactly half a second. Piastri was about two tenths of a second behind the best time set by Pierre Gasly in the Alpine.
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