Almost half of the Formula 1 grid has been penalised for track limit infringements following the Austrian Grand Prix.
During the race, there were a number of time penalties handed out as the drivers breached track limits, most often at Turns 9 and 10.
However, after the race, Aston Martin lodged a protest in which it claimed that there were several instances of track limit infringements that had not yet been looked at.
The FIA said that there were 1200 instances that they had to analyse regarding potential track limit breaches during the race.
Following an investigation, there were 83 lap times deleted post-race which resulted in time penalties for a number of drivers.
The stewards outlined that for four infringements, it would issue a five-second time penalty; for five infringements, a 10-second time penalty.
It then implemented a “reset” due to the excessive number of infringements, with counting restarting after the fifth infringement. After another four infringements, a five-second time penalty is applied; after five, a 10-second time penalty.
In a bid to avoid a similar situation in the future, the stewards stated that it “very strongly recommends that a solution be found to the track limits situation at this circuit”.
Carlos Sainz lost his fourth-place result after being hit with a 10-second penalty and drops to sixth, promoting Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso to fourth and fifth respectively.
Lewis Hamilton was also given 10 seconds on his race time and drops behind his team-mate George Russell in the classification, while a 10-second penalty for Pierre Gasly moves him from ninth to 10th.
The heftiest punishment was issued to Gasly’s Alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon, who was hit with a 30-second time penalty.
Logan Sargeant was also subject to a 10-second time penalty, while the AlphaTauri duo of Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries were subject to five-second sanctions.
As a result the final classification is as follows;
Position
Driver
Team
Gap
1
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
2
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
5.155
3
Sergio Perez
Red Bull
17.188
4
Lando Norris
McLaren
26.327
5
Fernando Alonso
Aston Martin
30.317
6
Carlos Sainz Jr
Ferrari
31.377
7
George Russell
Mercedes
48.403
8
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
49.196
9
Lance Stroll
Aston Martin
59.043
10
Pierre Gasly
Alpine
57.677
11
Alex Albon
Williams
79.767
12
Guanyu Zhou
Alfa Romeo
1 Lap
13
Logan Sargeant
Williams
1 Lap
14
Esteban Ocon
Alpine
1 Lap
15
Valtteri Bottas
Alfa Romeo
1 Lap
16
Oscar Piastri
McLaren
1 Lap
17
Nyck de Vries
AlphaTauri
1 Lap
18
Kevin Magnussen
Haas
1 Lap
19
Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri
1 Lap
20
Nico Hulkenberg
Haas
DNF
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