Oscar Piastri has escaped punishment from the Formula 1 Stewards after the McLaren driver was investigated for an alleged case of impeding during qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Australian had been summoned to the Stewards after he was alleged to have blocked Pierre Gasly at Turn 4 during the Alpine’s final attempt in Q3.
After a review of footage and telemetry, the stewards have determined that the McLaren driver will face no further action as it was found that the incident had no impact on Gasly’s effort.
“Telemetry of Car 10 [Gasly] showed the throttle was at 100% when Car 10 approached and overtook Car 81 [Piastri]. The driver of Car 10 stated he had to make a minor direction change but it did not affect his lap,” the Steward’s report read.
“The driver of Car 10 stated that he was not impacted by Car 81, and the data showed he achieved his fastest mini-sector time at
the point.”
Speaking after the session, Pierre Gasly told the media that he viewed the incident as “nothing”.
“Oscar was nothing, really. I think he was still a bit jet-lagged from Las Vegas!” said Gasly who will start Sunday’s race from P10.
“I kind of him sleeping a little bit there, but it was nothing. It was not intentional and I didn’t really know where he was going so that was a little bit surprising but I didn’t really lose any time.”
Piastri therefore maintains his third-place grid position having out-qualified McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.
The rookie will share the second row of the grid alongside George Russell, starting behind polesitter Max Verstappen who is joined on the front row by Charles Leclerc.
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