Penalties, track limit infringements at Austrian Grand Prix
Jul 03, 2023
Styria [Austria], July 3 : The FIA has released the final classification of results for the Austrian Grand Prix after a string of retrospective penalties for track limit infringements were handed down. Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton are two of the drivers to be demoted in the new standings, with Lando Norris elevated to fourth place while Fernando Alonso and George Russell also rise up in the results.
According to the official website of Formula 1, "The new classification has been released after the FIA handed out penalties to eight drivers following the conclusion of the race at the Red Bull Ring, which was won by a dominant Max Verstappen, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Red Bull's Sergio Perez coming home in second and third respectively."
Aston Martin had lodged a protest over the provisional classification shortly after the 71-lap encounter in Austria, where several other drivers had already been given penalties for track limits violations.
An accompanying note from the stewards at the time explained that "having become aware of the existence of a number of deleted laps (due to exceeding track limits) that were drawn to our attention after the receipt of the protest" the panel "have requested Race Control to perform a reconciliation of all deleted laps with penalties applied".
Later on, the stewards subsequently upheld the protest from Aston Martin and said that additional penalties for exceeding track limits would be applied to the final classification.
That has now filtered through from the FIA with Sainz, Hamilton, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon, Logan Sargeant, Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda all being hit with further penalties.
The new results see Sainz drop from P4 to P6, with Norris elevated to P4 and Fernando Alonso to P5. Hamilton drops from P7 to P8, with his teammate George Russell elevated to P7.
Meanwhile, Gasly drops a place to P10, with Lance Stroll rising up to P9, and Ocon drops from P12 to P14. Albon and Sargeant keep their respective P11 and P13 finishes.
AlphaTauri's De Vries drops from P15 to P17, while his teammate Tsunoda falls from P18 to P19.
According to the stewards, the retrospective penalties have been applied as follows, "For four infringements, a five-second time penalty; for five infringements, a 10-second time penalty. Then a "reset" has been allowed due to the excessive number of infringements. The counting of infringements restarts. After another four infringements, a five-second time penalty will apply; after five, a 10-second time penalty."
