Antonelli demoted to P7 on Hungarian GP grid for yellow flag breach

Kimi Antonelli’s initial opportunity of launching his Hungarian Grand Prix from the sharp end of the field suffered a significant setback after the stewards handed the Mercedes driver a three-place grid penalty for failing to slow sufficiently under yellow flags during Saturday’s qualifying session.

The championship leader had secured fourth place in qualifying at the Hungaroring, but his final flying lap eventually came under scrutiny after he encountered local yellow flags at the final corner, where Max Verstappen’s Red Bull was stranded in the run-off following a spin.

Although Antonelli lifted off the throttle as he approached the incident, the FIA stewards concluded that the reduction in speed was too small to satisfy the regulations. The Italian has therefore been demoted three places to seventh on the starting grid for Sunday’s race.

The penalty reshuffles the order further following Lewis Hamilton’s own three-place grid drop for impeding Oscar Piastri, promoting the McLaren driver to third while Verstappen moves up to the second row.

Stewards explain their decision

In a detailed verdict, the stewards acknowledged that Antonelli had reacted to the yellow flags, but determined that his response was insufficient because he was still travelling faster through the incident zone than on his previous qualifying lap.

"The driver of Car 12 stated that on seeing the yellow flag and light panel, he lifted off the throttle earlier than his previous push lap," the stewards wrote.

"This was verified by the telemetry. However the reduction in speed occurred for a very short period, and in fact the car’s speed when passing the scene of the incident involving Car 3, was slightly higher than that on the previous push lap.

"The mini sector time was only 0.03 second slower than his best time for that mini sector, and whilst, because he had lifted 16 metres earlier, he was 14 km/h slower entering the yellow flag sector, but was 3 km/h faster when passing the incident site due to less application of the brakes entering the corner. The FIA representatives noted that the speed reduction in the mini sector was less than 1%.

"The Stewards considered this incident to be different to other incidents that have resulted in no further action, because unlike those cases, there was no significant speed delta through the mini sector compared to the driver’s previous fastest time under similar circumstances."

Leniency spares Antonelli harsher punishment

Under the FIA’s penalty guidelines, Antonelli could have been dropped five places on the grid. However, the stewards opted for a reduced sanction after determining that the 19-year-old had at least attempted to slow for the yellow flags, even if the effort ultimately fell short.

"The recommended penalty according to the penalty guidelines, for this offence, is a drop of 5 grid positions," the FIA stewards added.

"However in mitigation of penalty, we considered that the driver did make a reduction in speed, albeit, in our determination, an insufficient and unsustained one. Further, the driver had limited time and distance to react. Hence a lower penalty is applied."

• Read also: Hamilton stripped of front row start in Hungary for impeding Piastri

Antonelli also received one penalty point on his super licence and was issued a warning for driving unnecessarily slowly and exceeding the prescribed minimum delta time on his in-lap after qualifying.

The ruling caps a frustrating Saturday for Mercedes, whose unbeaten qualifying record this season was already ended by Lando Norris’ pole-winning performance before post-session penalties further reshaped the grid.

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via X and Facebook