Williams driver Alex Albon will start the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix sprint from 19th following a post-session penalty.
Albon showed early pace, putting his Williams through to SQ2 at the F1 Miami GP.
Initially, the Thai driver secured 14th place, narrowly missing out on an SQ3 appearance, but Liam Lawson, knocked out in Q1, mysteriously climbed back into his Racing Bulls, preparing to venture out.
It transpired that Lawson was waiting for the stewards to confirm if Albon had breached track limits on his final lap, Racing Bulls alerting the stewards, but no announcement came during SQ2.
Instead, the stewards confirmed once the chequered flag fell at the end of SQ2, that they would investigate Albon’s alleged transgression after the session.
Following the post-session review, stewards determined that Albon did indeed exceed track limits at Turn 6 on his final flying lap in SQ1.
The stewards also removed all subsequent times he set in the second segment of the shootout, forcing Albon to start the sprint race towards the back of the grid in 19th place.
Lawson now starts 16th, with Carlos Sainz, Arvid Lindblad, Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez all moving up a place.
Full statement from the stewards
“During SQ1, Car 23 clearly exceeded track limits in Turn 6.
However, this was not reported to the Stewards until SQ2 had commenced. Car 23’s time recorded on the lap where track limits were exceeded was sufficient to place it in SQ2.
Hence at the time the Stewards were informed that Car 23 had left the track and that its lap should have been potentially deleted, it was already on track in SQ2.
As this was an unusual situation, the Stewards have decided to settle the matter by exercising their authority under Article 11.7.1.a of the International Sporting Code by deleting the lap time of the lap in question in SQ1.
As Car 23 should not have proceeded into SQ2, all lap times from SQ2 will consequently be deleted.”
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