Because he was penalized for obstructing Nico Hulkenberg of Haas during qualifying, Sergio Perez fell from third to sixth on the
Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix grid.
Lando Norris of McLaren moves up to third, Charles Leclerc of Ferrari moves up to fourth, and Oscar Piastri’s second McLaren moves
up to fifth for his home race in Melbourne, ahead of the demoted Perez.
Max Verstappen, Perez’s Red Bull teammate, secured pole position ahead of Carlos Sainz of Ferrari.
Following his meeting with the stewards following qualifying, Perez discussed the collision with Hulkenberg in qualifying. The
stewards concluded that the world champions’ pit wall had only “significantly too late” alerted their driver to the approaching Haas,
which was on a fast lap while the Red Bull was on a slow one.
The stewards confirmed the ruling in a statement that said as follows: “Hulkenberg was traveling quickly when he entered turn 13 on
his lap. Hulkenberg had to break off the racing line in order to go around Perez, who was in the midst of an out lap.
“Hulkenberg had to brake and lift the throttle early for the turn. The Stewards listened to the audio from Perez’s car and found that the
team was preoccupied with the car that had just slowed down in front of Perez. They failed to alert Perez to the presence of
Hulkenberg until a mere second before Hulkenberg arrived, which was much too late to prevent Hulkenberg from being impeded.”The
Stewards decide that Perez “unnecessarily impeded” Hulkenberg and award a three grid position deduction, in line with other
examples, despite acknowledging the challenging circumstances that the team and driver faced during the Q1 session, as detailed in
the hearing.
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