Piastri verdict after FIA investigation into ‘dangerous’ Hulkenberg impeding claim

Oscar Piastri has been handed a warning by the Suzuka stewards for impeding Nico Hulkenberg during Saturday’s final practice.

Piastri and Hulkenberg had a good start to Saturday’s action at the Japanese Grand Prix, at least on the timesheet.

Oscar Piastri faced the Suzuka stewards over Nico Hulkenberg impeding incident

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust

The McLaren driver was fourth quickest behind the Mercedes teammates and Charles Leclerc, only 0.15s down on the Ferrari driver, while Hulkenberg finished P7 in the Audi.

The two though, had to visit the stewards in the gap between FP3 and Qualifying over an alleged impeding incident.

Hulkenberg encountered Piastri on the entry to 130R when the McLaren driver was weaving to generate tyre temp.

Hulkenberg told Audi that Piastri’s antics were “dangerous”.

The incident was noted by Race Control for a post-session investigation.

More from the Japanese Grand Prix on PlanetF1.com

Antonelli leads Mercedes 1-2 as Norris is hit by yet more reliability troubles

Oscar Piastri ‘on the back foot’ admits McLaren chief after double DNS

Having spoken with both drivers, the stewards handed Piastri a warning for his antics.

The verdict read: “Car 81 was weaving across the track warming tyres on the straight between turns 14 and 15 when Car 27 approached at high speed on a push lap. Team radio confirmed that the Driver of Car 81 had received a warning from the team that Car 27 was behind on a timed lap.

“When Car 27 arrived at the entry to turn 15, Car 81 stopped weaving but remained on the racing line and moved off line but the closing speed of the two cars was such that the driver of Car 27 had to lift and brake.

“The Driver of Car 81 explained that he heard the warning of Car 27’s approach and saw Car 27 in his mirrors as Car 27 was exiting turn 14. He said that at that point Car 27 was so far back that he believed he had ample time to warm his tyres and get over to the left at the exit of turn 15 before Car 27 would reach him.

“He said that he was using full throttle on the long straight and his telemetry confirmed this. He said that he had misjudged the closing speed on Car 27’s approach (75kph).

“The Driver explained that, as was his habit last year, he was placing significant reliance on the virtual mirror system. However, this incident had demonstrated to him that, in his view, the refresh rate of the virtual mirror is insufficient to give a reliable warning to the Driver of the significant closing speeds of the 2026 cars. Nonetheless, he accepted that car 27 was unnecessarily impeded.

“The Stewards determined that the Driver of Car 81 unnecessarily impeded Car 27 and impose the usual penalty for such an infringement in a Free Practice session of a warning

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!

Read next: Japanese GP qualifying rule change sends powerful F1 2026 message