Giovinazzi hit with three-place grid penalty
Antonio Giovinazzi gets a three-place grid penalty for blocking Nico Hulkenberg in qualifying for the Monaco GP.
Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi has been hit with a three-place grid penalty after blocking Nico Hulkenberg during qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix.
Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was forced to evade the Italian on the approach to Rascasse in Q1, with the stewards also noting that the team left it very late to warn him about Hulkenberg approaching.
“The driver of car 99 was between turn 16 and turn 18 when he was warned exceptionally late that car 27 was behind him,” the stewards explained. “At the time he was in the middle of the track and clearly impeded car 27.
“The stewards considered that as the driver of car 99 was on a set-up lap, he had the opportunity to give more room regardless of whether he received a warning from the team.
“Further the team had the opportunity to give a better warning. The stewards therefore determined that the impeding was unnecessary, and ordered a three grid place drop, consistent with past practice.”
Giovinazzi will now drop from P15 to P18 for Sunday’s race, while he was also given his first penalty point for the incident.
Great news Ferrari fans!
Antonio Giovinazzi’s three-place grid drop for blocking puts Charles Leclerc up to P15 on the grid! pic.twitter.com/GmSQDbD0xD
— Planet F1 (@Planet_F1) May 25, 2019
The drop for Giovinazzi moves Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll up one place on the starting grid in Monaco.
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