Alfa Romeo's Giovinazzi falls foul of Hungary stewards

Antonio Giovinazzi (ITA) Alfa Romeo Racing C38.

Just a week after being hit by big penalties at the end of the German Grand Prix, the Alfa Romeo team has fallen foul of the race stewards again in Hungary.

This time it's Antonio Giovinazzi who has been hit by official censure, for impeding Racing Point's Lance Stroll at turn 5 during the first stage of today's qualifying session.

Stroll was eliminated after the incident, but Giovinazzi made it through to Q2 and eventually qualified in 14th place. However a three place penalty means that he will line up for tomorrow's race in 17th position on the starting grid.

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The stewards did accept that it was the team that was partially to blame for the incident, after it gave Giovinazzi incorrect information over the radio.

"The team incorrectly informed the driver of car 99 that he was ‘in phase’ with car 18, when in fact car 18 was on a push lap," said the official stewards statement from the FIA.

"[However] it is the driver’s responsibility to ensure that on an in lap, he makes all reasonable endeavours to watch for following cars that are on a push lap and to ensure they are not impeded.

"It was noted that car 99 was shown a blue flashing light halfway between turns three and four. Telemetry and GPS data confirmed that car 18 lost considerable time through the section of track involved.

"The stewards believe the driver of car 99 could, and should, have moved from the racing line prior to turn four. Accordingly, the driver unnecessarily impeded car 18."

As well as the three-place grid drop for tomorrow's race - which puts him behind Kevin Magnussen, George Russell and Sergio Perez - the Italian has also been given a one point penalty on his F1 superlicence. That gives him a total of four for the current 12-month period.

The penalty for his rival doesn't do Stroll much good, with the Canadian dismayed to find himself starting from the back row of the grid at the Hungaroring.

"We really struggled in practice this morning and that put us on the back foot for qualifying," he explained. "I was blocked [by Giovinazzi] on one of my laps.

"[But] there were also some mistakes from my side which proved costly, because I think it could have been much better."

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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.