Williams' George Russell has been handed a three-place grid penalty for "unnecessarily impeding" Daniil Kvyat during qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Kvyat was on a flying lap when he entered Turn 9 and came up on a slow moving Russell, forcing him to run wide. The Toro Rosso driver failed to escape Q1 as a result.
Russell admitted after the session that he was unaware of Kvyat's position and wasn't informed by his team that the Russian was approaching, nor that he was on a flying lap.
Russell, who qualified 19th, will actually start 18th once the penalty has been applied as both Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon will fill the final two grid spots because of various engine penalties. His Williams team-mate Robert Kubica moves up to 17th.
"The Stewards reviewed video evidence and heard from the driver of car 26 (Daniil Kvyat) and the driver of car 63 (George Russell) and the team representatives and determined that car 63 unnecessarily impeded car 26 after the apex of Turn 9," read a statement.
"The Stewards noted that car 63 was not given the requisite warning by the team in a timely fashion about car 26 approaching on a fast lap. Furthermore, the situation was compounded by car 23 overtaking car 63 during a slow lap, just before the incident in question."
Russell was also handed one penalty point for the incident – his first this year.
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