Hamilton to start fourth after grid penalty

Lewis Hamilton will start the Austrian Grand Prix from fourth position after incurring a penalty for impeding Kimi Raikkonen in qualifying.

The incident occurred during Qualifying 1 when Hamilton skipped across Turn 3 in a bid to avoid the fast approaching Alfa Romeo, but Raikkonen’s lap was still ruined.

Hamilton had originally put his Mercedes on the front row before stewards decided to penalise the Mercedes driver.

“The Stewards reviewed video evidence and heard from the driver of car 7 (Kimi Raikkonen) and the driver of car 44 (Lewis Hamilton) and the team representatives and determined that car 44 unnecessarily impeded car 7 at turn 3,” read the stewards report.

“Car 44 had just come out of the pits and was informed of the cars approaching, including car 7. Although car 44 tried to take evasive action when he became aware of car 7 approaching on a fast lap, it was not sufficient to avoid impeding car 7, which had to then abort the lap.”

Speaking ahead of the decision being handed down, Hamilton seemed prepared to accept his fate.

“I got off the brakes to try and get out of the way because I didn’t want to meet in the corner,” he explained.

“I don’t think we did, but it probably did put him off.

“I wasn’t aware the car was coming, so it wasn’t the easiest. It was a mistake on my behalf, and I take full responsibility.”

Hamilton was set to start alongside pole-sitter Charles Leclerc but now sits a row back, next to team-mate Valtteri Bottas, after several other penalties were applied up and down the field.

The FIA exercises penalties post-qualifying in the way that they were initially handed out, meaning Hamilton’s was the last to be applied.

He was therefore saved one position by Kevin Magnussen’s five-position penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change that sees the Haas driver put back to 10th.

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg will start 15th having also had five positions added due to taking a fifth internal combustion engine.

George Russell actually moved forward relative to where he qualified despite a three-position penalty for impeding Daniil Kvyat’s Toro Rosso in the closing stages of Q1.

Russell is now due to start 18th, next to Williams team-mate Robert Kubica.

Carlos Sainz (McLaren) and Alexander Albon (Scuderia Toro Rosso) will start from the back of the grid after changing power unit elements.

Race start is scheduled for 2310 AEST.

Starting grid: Austrian Grand Prix