Stewards have excluded Valtteri Bottas from Qualifying for the British Grand Prix and fined Scuderia AlphaTauri.
Bottas stopped out on track at the end of Qualifying 1 without obvious issue, the car unable to provide the mandatory litre of fuel required for scrutineering.
Referred by the FIA technical delegate to the stewards, the breach left them no choice by to exclude the Alfa Romeo Sauber driver from the session.
“The car was unable to provide the required fuel sample,” the stewards’ summary noted.
“There were no mitigating circumstances.”
Qualifying for the British Grand Prix was a slightly unusual affair, as changeable conditions placed an emphasis on simply being on track at the right time.
Teams, therefore, fuelled their cars up, with drivers completing multiple laps on any given run.
At the end of Qualifying 1, which saw rapidly drying conditions, Bottas rolled to a halt.
Stewards also handed out a fine to Scuderia AlphaTauri after the Italian squad released Nyck de Vries into the path of 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,” they noted.
“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.”
For that, they handed down a €5000 penalty for the team, with de Vries escaping individual punishment.
Also unpunished was Zhou Guanyu after he was summoned for allegedly impeding Esteban Ocon during the opening phase of Qualifying.
“Zhou was on an out lap during Q1 and was at the exit of Turn 11 and driving slowly on the racing line and thereby impeded Ocon who was on a fast lap,” stewards noted.
“However, in the hearing Zhou explained that he had to go slow to avoid Hamilton in front of him and had to stay on the left side of the track because as he entered the turn he was passed on the right by Bottas and could not have moved off the line without causing an unsafe situation.
“This was confirmed by his in-car camera.
“Both drivers agreed that while Ocon was impeded there was not much that Zhou could have safely done in the conditions to avoid the incident and thus the Stewards take no further action.”
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