Valtteri Bottas has been excluded from the results of today's qualifying session for the British Grand Prix, meaning he will start tomorrow's race from the back of the grid.
Bottas originally made the cut at the end of the first round of qualifying, but the Alfa Romeo came to a halt on track after the chequered flag for the end of Q1. The car had to be retrieved and brought back to pit lane by the marshals.
Bottas was initially uncertain why the car had stopped without warning. “We need to find out. There's obviously many reasons that can cause the engine to stop, so I don't know. It's a shame, but not much I can do."
However, the FIA subsequently discovered that the car contained insufficient fuel for them to take the mandatory post-session one-litre test sample - which may or may not account for the car coming to a halt.
Either way, not having enough fuel at the end of the session means that the car is excluded from the results, as a statement from the FIA’s technical delegate Jo Bauer explained.
“After the qualifying session today it was checked on car number 77, that a 1-litre fuel sample plus the amount of fuel that would have been consumed to drive back to the pits could be taken (technical regulations article 6.5.2).
"It was possible to take a 0.090 litre sample," it continued. “As the amount of fuel needed to produce a 1-litre sample plus to return the car to the garage was calculated as 2.39 litre, I am referring this matter to the stewards.”
The stewards considered the matter and concluded that there were no mitigating circumstances for Alfa Romeo having not been able to provide a sufficient fuel sample, and that the car would therefore be excluded from the results.
The last time a car was excluded on these grounds was Alex Albon at last year’s Australian GP. It raises Sergio Perez to 15th on the grid, with similar one place promotions for Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu, Nyck de Vries and Kevin Magnussen.
"We are undoubtedly disappointed, as we felt more than on previous days that we had the potential to do well," commented Alfa Romeo team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi.
"With Valtteri we showed we were comfortably into Q2, but a technical issue related to fuel forced him to stop, and to pull out of qualifying.
"Unfortunately the problem meant we weren’t able to submit the required fuel sample to the scrutineers, which lead to Valtteri being disqualified from the session.
"It’s a pity as he had been doing an excellent job, and we are sorry to see his chances of a good qualifying session seriously damaged."
"Today’s results are very disappointing," agreed Bottas. "It seemed we actually had a real chance to make it into the top ten.
"I started to lose power on the final inlap, and then the engine stopped. We eventually figured out it was a technical issue with fuel in the car, and we are already working to address that and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
"Sadly, this means we’ll be starting at the back of the grid in the race, which is not where we would have deserved to be looking at our pace.
"Still, tomorrow will be a long day and as always the weather could add one more element of unpredictability.
"The car felt better than yesterday, and we have slightly better pace compared to previous events, so our aim will be to make the most out of it and fight as hard as we can through the field.”
Bottas’ team mate Zhou Guanyu was also investigated after qualifying, but the stewards decided against penalising him for impeding Esteban Ocon.
But the stewards did issue a five thousand Euros fine to AlphaTauri over an unsafe release on pit road in which Nyck de Vries was ushered out of his pit box i9nto the path of McLaren's Oscar Piastri.
“De Vries released from his pit stop location into the path of Piastri who was driving in the fast lane during the first qualifying session,” the stewards ruled.
“De Vries had to drive through the working lane to avoid colliding with Piastri, at a time when the pit lane was damp with low grip. The stewards considered the release to be unsafe."
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