The FIA handed out penalties after qualifying! Hülkenberg loses front row, Sainz and two other drivers also receive penalties

Formula 1 has its eighth race of the season this weekend, the Canadian Grand Prix. On Saturday, the drivers qualified for Sunday’s Grand Prix. However, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) intervened quite significantly in the starting order, handing out penalties. Nico Hülkenberg, for example, will lose his front row start.

Saturday’s qualifying for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix was greatly affected by the variable conditions, but for most of the time the drivers had to make their quick attempts in the rain.

As a result, there were red flags to be seen in addition to yellow flags for various off-track excursions. Already in the opening minutes of the first part of qualifying, Zhou Guangyu stopped his car near the track, so the race directors resorted to suspending qualifying for safety.

The fans witnessed another interruption in Q3 (the name for the third qualifying segment, which is only open to the ten fastest drivers – ed.). That was when McLaren driver Oscar Piastri met the wall at turn eight.

And this was the exact moment for which Nico Hülkenberg was penalised after qualifying. According to the sports commissioners, the Haas driver did not slow down properly during the red flags. His time of 1:27.102 was good enough for second place.

However, as a result of an infraction against the rules, the FIA, or rather the sports commissioners, decided to penalize him. And thus the loss of three places on the grid.

“The driver has just completed his fastest lap and has started another fast lap. He was in the first corner when the red flag was displayed. However, at that point he was already 1.5 seconds off his delta time. He claimed that this made it extremely difficult for him to get under the delta in the next sector,” the stewards said on the official F1 website.

Extenuating circumstances…

The sports stewards would otherwise have penalised Hülkenberg for the offence by deducting ten places. However, they took into account his driving, which was in line with Esteban Ocon’s.

“Telemetry comparisons with car 31 showed that for the remainder of the lap he was travelling at approximately the same speed as car 31, which was maintaining the delta times in each minisector. We consider this to be a mitigating circumstance,” the stewards also said.

Three other drivers also received penalties

Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll and Júki Cunoda were also penalised by dropping three places at the start. The former blocked Pierre Gasly in the last corner of Q1, making it impossible for him to complete his fast attempt.

As a result, the French Alpine driver did not progress to the next part of qualifying. Stroll (Aston Martin) and Cunoda (AlphaTauri) also received the same penalties for similar offences. So what will be the order at the start of the Canadian Grand Prix?

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