Leclerc handed three-place grid penalty for Sprint

Charles Leclerc has been sanctioned by the Austrian Grand Prix stewards for impeding Oscar Piastri in Saturday's Sprint shootout and handed a three-place grid drop for the afternoon event.

Leclerc had failed to move out of Piastri's trajectory in SQ1 as the pair ran through the final sequence of corners at the Red Bull Ring.

The McLaren driver immediately complained over the radio and the stewards promptly put the action under investigation.

Following a hearing, the stewards concluded that while Ferrari's lack of communication to Leclerc was a major contributing factor in the impeding incident, a grid position penalty "must be imposed as Car 81 was unnecessarily impeded because there is no doubt that the situation could have been avoided."

• 2023 Austrian Grand Prix - Sprint Shootout Results

The stewards also made clear that "this penalty is to apply ONLY to the Sprint and should the driver be unable to contest the Sprint at this event, the penalty shall carry over to the next Sprint (and not the Grand Prix)."

Leclerc's three-place penalty will drop the Monegasque from P6 to P9 on the Sprint event's grid, with Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon moving up a position in the starting order.

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