Hulkenberg loses front row spot over red flag breach

Nico Hulkenberg will start Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix from fifth place on the grid instead of the front row, after being found guilty of an infringement of red flag rules during qualifying.

Fortunate timing meant that the Haas driver had just set the second fastest time of Q3 when the session was stopped for an accident involving McLaren's Oscar Piastri.

By the time the session resumed, the weather conditions had deteriorated to the point where no further productive running could be undertaken meaning that Hulkenberg was provisionally shown in second place on the grid.

But he was summoned to the stewards over a report that he had failed to slow sufficiently in response to the ensuing red flag. That risked up to a possible ten place grid drop under F1's sporting rules and regulations.

"The driver had just finished his fastest lap and had started another push lap," the stewards report explained. "He was at T1 when the red flag was displayed, however at that point he was already 1.5 seconds over his delta time.

"He claimed this made it extremely difficult for him to come below the delta in the next sector. He also admitted to confusion about the beep signal in his headset, and therefore at one stage thought he was going too slow.

Read also: Verstappen sails to Canada pole, Hulkenberg surprise second!

"Comparison of telemetry with that of Car 31 [Esteban Ocon] showed that in general for the rest of the lap he was approximately the same speed as Car 31 which complied with the delta times in each mini-sector.

"We regard this as a mitigating circumstance," the stewards stated. "However the regulation is very clear and whilst there is no question of the driver acting dangerously or driving unsafely, there was a breach and thus a penalty has to be imposed.

"We note the intention of the regulation is to ensure a car is not speeding during a red flag situation and there is no evidence that the speed was excessive in this case," the stewards added. "The normal penalty for failure to slow under red flags is ten grid positions, however in view of the mitigating circumstance, a lower penalty is appropriate."

The penalty was given as a demotion of three grid positions dropping him from P2 to P5, with one penalty point on his superlicence. The stewards also said the driver should "make himself more familiar with the operational aspects of the delta signals".

Hulkenberg took the news philosophically: “Obviously the ending of the day is not quite as good as it was earlier, that’s obviously a pity and it’s a shame not to be staring on the front row.

"We have to face the consequences with that. I think in terms of our race it doesn’t really change anything – the approach is the same and it won’t impact or harm the outcome. We’ll prepare as usual and race hard."

“The penalty tonight shouldn’t take anything away from the team and what we did," commented team principal Guenther Steiner. "We’re second in our minds.

"Yes, there was a mistake, there was too much speed, but we’ve also to consider there was never, ever, anybody put in any danger because Nico was always on his own.

"Obviously it’s against the rules, but it was a mistake, it didn’t create any danger, we got the penalty – we have to take it. We’ll go back and try to do the best we can tomorrow."

The Hulkenberg decision was just one of a number of matters referred to the stewards for further investigation after the end of Saturday's qualifying session at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

Carlos Sainz had already been handed a three place grid drop for impeding Pierre Gasly at the end of the first round. Gasly failed to make the cut as a result while Sainz went on to finish in P8; the Spaniard will now drop to 11th on the grid.

Further decisions saw Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll also hit by a three-place grid penalty for his home race, in this case for for impeding Esteban Ocon in Q3, meaning Stroll will drop to 16th on the grid.

"[Stroll] stated that although he was aware of [Ocon] approaching," the stewards said. "He had no choice but to remain on the dry racing line because his tyres (soft compound) were cold and if he had not, he would have crashed due to the wet nature of the track.

"However the team did make him aware of the closeness of [Ocon] and it is our view that he could have reduced speed on the straight between turns 7 and 8 and allowed [Ocon] past. Because of this, he unnecessarily impeded Car 31."

AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda has also been given his very own three place grid drop for impeding Hulkenberg during the session. It means the Japanese driver drops to P19 on the grid.

But there was slightly happier news for Tsunoda when it came to the alleged impeding of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc at turn 10. The stewards said this had been due to Tsunoda himself being slowed by Logan Sargeant and having to abort his own flying lap, and deemed no action was necessary.

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