Albon excluded from Dutch GP qualifying

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Alex Albon has been excluded from the results of Saturday's Dutch GP qualifying session for a technical infringement on his Williams, and will have to start tomorrow's race from the back of the grid or from pit lane.

The FIA's technical delegate Jo Bauer reported the Williams to the stewards when it was discovered during post-qualifying scrutineering that the floor body of the FW46 fell outside the permitted regulatory volume.

Williams did not dispute the calibration of the FIA measuring system or the measurement of the car, although team representatives argued that their own measurements have produced different results.

The stewards determined that the FIA's official measure was the only one that counted in such a situation and duly disqualified Albon from the results of today's qualifying.

Albon will be allowed to start the race. The provisional starting grid puts him at the back of the grid in P20 but he may be relegated to parc ferme if the team fit a legal specification version of the floor on the car overnight.

Read also: Norris surges to Zandvoort pole ahead of Verstappen

Albon had made it through to the final round of qualifying and had expected to start from P8. Now, everyone behind him from Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly will get a one place promotion on the grid.

Earlier, Lewis Hamilton had been handed a three place grid penalty for impeding Sergio Perez during qualifying which gave one place boosts to Yuki Tsunoda, Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen for the start of the race.

Albon's exclusion means Tsunoda, Hulkenberg and Magnussen now get a combined boost of two positions, and and Hamilton gets a bonus place restoring him to P14 for the start.

Albon's team mate Logan Sargeant didn't take part in qualifying after a big accident in final practice left his own car too badly damaged to take part in qualifying.

However Sargeant has been given dispensation from the race stewards to take part in the race despite not meeting the official 107 per cent requirement. He will be allowed to start from the back of the grid in what is now effectively P19, ahead of Albon.

Life is certainly never dull in the stewards' office at a Grand Prix weekend, with former F1 driver and TV pundit Johnny Herbert among those officiating at Zandvoort..

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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.