FIA delivers Alex Albon verdict after Sprint qualifying confusion

Alex Albon has been dumped to P19 for the Miami Sprint after a late stewards’ investigation overturned his SQ2 appearance.

There was some confusion in Friday’s Sprint qualifying at the Miami Autodrome as the drivers prepared for SQ2 with Albon sitting in his Williams while an eliminated Liam Lawson was seen hot-footing it back to the Racing Bulls garage.

Alex Albon penalised to P19 after Miami Sprint qualifying ruling

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Lawson had been eliminated in 17th place and thus would be the driver to progress if one of those who qualified ahead of him was penalised.

However, nothing came of Lawson’s sprint, with Albon taking his place in SQ2.

Albon qualified 14th fastest, only for the stewards to announce that he was under investigation for a track limit violation during the opening Sprint qualifying segment.

The Thai-British racer was found to have exceeded track limits at Turn 6 during his final run, with the stewards stripping him of his laps in SQ2 as well as his best time from SQ1.

That dropped him from 14th to 19th on the Sprint grid.

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The stewards’ ruling read: “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 that 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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