Almost half of the Formula 1 grid has been penalised for track limit infringements following the Austrian Grand Prix.
During the race, there were a number of time penalties handed out as the drivers breached track limits, most often at Turns 9 and 10.
However, after the race, Aston Martin lodged a protest in which it claimed that there were several instances of track limit infringements that had not yet been looked at.
The FIA said that there were 1200 instances that they had to analyse regarding potential track limit breaches during the race.
Following an investigation, there were 83 lap times deleted post-race which resulted in time penalties for a number of drivers.
The stewards outlined that for four infringements, it would issue a five-second time penalty; for five infringements, a 10-second time penalty.
It then implemented a “reset” due to the excessive number of infringements, with counting restarting after the fifth infringement. After another four infringements, a five-second time penalty is applied; after five, a 10-second time penalty.
In a bid to avoid a similar situation in the future, the stewards stated that it “very strongly recommends that a solution be found to the track limits situation at this circuit”.
Carlos Sainz lost his fourth-place result after being hit with a 10-second penalty and drops to sixth, promoting Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso to fourth and fifth respectively.
Lewis Hamilton was also given 10 seconds on his race time and drops behind his team-mate George Russell in the classification, while a 10-second penalty for Pierre Gasly moves him from ninth to 10th.
The heftiest punishment was issued to Gasly’s Alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon, who was hit with a 30-second time penalty.
Logan Sargeant was also subject to a 10-second time penalty, while the AlphaTauri duo of Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries were subject to five-second sanctions.
As a result the final classification is as follows;
| Position | Driver | Team | Gap | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Max Verstappen | Red Bull | |||
| 2 |
|
Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 5.155 | ||
| 3 |
|
Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 17.188 | ||
| 4 |
|
Lando Norris | McLaren | 26.327 | ||
| 5 |
|
Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 30.317 | ||
| 6 |
|
Carlos Sainz Jr | Ferrari | 31.377 | ||
| 7 |
|
George Russell | Mercedes | 48.403 | ||
| 8 |
|
Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 49.196 | ||
| 9 |
|
Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 59.043 | ||
| 10 |
|
Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 57.677 | ||
| 11 |
|
Alex Albon | Williams | 79.767 | ||
| 12 |
|
Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 1 Lap | ||
| 13 |
|
Logan Sargeant | Williams | 1 Lap | ||
| 14 |
|
Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1 Lap | ||
| 15 |
|
Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 1 Lap | ||
| 16 |
|
Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1 Lap | ||
| 17 |
|
Nyck de Vries | AlphaTauri | 1 Lap | ||
| 18 |
|
Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1 Lap | ||
| 19 |
|
Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1 Lap | ||
| 20 |
|
Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | DNF |
