Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Bottas hit with grid penalty for red flag infringement

Valtteri Bottas has been handed a three-place grid penalty for the Brazilian Grand Prix for a red flag infringement on Friday.

Fernando Alonso brought out the red flags when he stopped out on track during FP2 with smoke emerging from the rear of his McLaren, causing everyone to have to return to the pits. Bottas overtook Felipe Nasr's Sauber on his way back while the red flags were out, and the stewards have now punished him with a grid penalty.

Having passed Nasr between Turns 5 and 6 - just past the point where Alonso had stopped - Bottas was summoned to the stewards and received the three-place penalty as well as two penalty points.

"The driver of car 77 admitted he overtook car 12 under red flags, the Stewards in applying the penalty took into consideration that despite the considerable speed difference between the cars, the driver of car 77 could have avoided overtaking under the red flag," the stewards' decision read.

Speaking before the penalty was handed out, Bottas was optimistic Williams can enjoy a strong weekend at Interlagos after looking competitive during Friday practice.

FP2 REPORT: Rosberg turns the tables on Hamilton

AS IT HAPPENED: Brazilian Grand Prix FP2

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.