Oscar Piastri stripped of front row start

The Australian had been called to the stewards following the qualifying hour after he impeded Kevin Magnussen during Qualifying 1.

The outcome was the Australian was deemed to have unnecessarily delayed the Haas driver, resulting in a three-place grid drop.

Piastri had qualified second fastest for the race, which would have seen him alongside Max Verstappen on the front row.

He’ll instead fall to fifth, behind the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

It will also see Piastri’s McLaren team-mate Lando Norris promoted to second in his place.

“Piastri was exiting the pits and Magnussen was on his fast lap. Piastri impeded Magnussen at the chicane at Turns 2 and 3,” stewards outlined in their decision.

“The Stewards accepted the explanation of Piastri that because of the layout of the circuit at that location, he could not see Magnussen until it was too late, at which time he tried to accelerate away in order to get clear of Magnussen as quickly as possible.

“Magnussen acknowledged that it was difficult for drivers to see cars behind in many portions of the track, including here.

“However, the Stewards reviewed the team radio and Piastri’s team did not warn him of the much faster approaching car until Magnussen was too close for Piastri to do anything to safely avoid impeding.

“In fact there was an approximately 140km/h speed differential and Magnussen was only approximately 40-50m behind at the time and this meant that Piastri was in the middle of the chicane when Magnussen caught up directly behind Piastri,” they added.

“Further, it was clear that Magnussen was on a fast lap since his exit of Turn 19.

“Traffic management for slower cars is an extremely important part of the team/driver combination, particularly in Q1.

“In this instance the Stewards determine that the lack of sufficient warning caused an ‘unnecessary impeding’.”