Ferrari Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton has been penalised ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix for impeding fellow F1 champion Max Verstappen in the first segment of qualifying.
The penalty had been anticipated by Verstappen, who said that even though Hamilton was clearly blameless in the incident past precedent suggested he had to be sanctioned.
It means Hamilton will move from fourth on the grid to seventh, promoting Verstappen as well as rookie Isack Hadjar and veteran Fernando Alonso a place each.
The incident was created by incorrect information fed to Hamilton as he was coming out of Ste Devote on a slow lap.
The seven-time F1 champion was told by his Ferrari team that he had "Verstappen pushing behind, three seconds...sorry, slowing down".
Upon hearing that, Hamilton sped up, assuming there was no Verstappen flying lap to worry about - but this was immediately proven incorrect, much to Hamilton's chagrin on the radio.
While there was a difference of accounts between Hamilton and the stewards over whether he was on the racing line, it was indisputable that he blocked Verstappen's view of the apex - and that his change in speed unsettled Verstappen's lap, creating a snap and immediately forcing Verstappen to abort the effort, which was followed by shocked swearing from the Red Bull driver.
Hamilton's explanation
"I don't know if there was some sort of issue with the computer screen, it said that Max was on the lap and then it [the lap] disappeared - so that was the information they [Ferrari] gave me," said Hamilton afterwards.
"They told me he was on the lap, so I moved to the side [through Beau Rivage], I was completely out of the way - and then I guess for them they [incorrectly] realised he wasn't on the lap, so they told me that.
"And so I started to accelerate, I stayed fully to the left, and I wasn't on the racing line - but of course it was distracting for Max."
That last argument - that Hamilton wasn't on the racing line - would be disputed by the stewards later.
Verstappen's take
Verstappen - whose qualifying was in the end not meaningfully hurt by the impeding - was very relaxed about the matter afterwards.
"At the time of course I was like, 'What is going on here?'" he recalled - but he said that, with the context of the information Hamilton was receiving from Ferrari, the Briton's actions were completely "normal" and "I know it's not his fault".
But Verstappen was still clear a penalty should be forthcoming in line with how F1 qualifying sessions are judged.
"If he can get away with that, then I'm really surprised," Verstappen said. "It's not like I'm trying to get Lewis a penalty - it's just a precedent of what they have been using in the stewards' room.
"I know it's the team's fault, clearly, because Lewis is normally quite correct with these things, like moving out of the way - and no one really wants to impede anyone on purpose. This was just unfortunate but it happened."
The stewards' verdict
In the end, Hamilton did not "get away" with it despite the stewards' acknowledgment he had been fed incorrect information.
"Car #1 [Verstappen] had to react to car #44 [Hamilton] appearing to move into the racing line," their verdict read. "That meant that car #1 had to move off the usual racing line and the push lap had to be aborted.
"We carefully examined the racing line taken by car #1 in previous laps at the same area and determined that car #44 did in fact enter the racing line car #1 used in previous push laps. This put it beyond doubt that car #1 was impeded.
"During the hearing, the fact of the team's incorrect message leading to the incident was accepted by the driver of car #44.
"As with previous incidents of this nature where a driver has received inaccurate or incomplete information resulting in a car impeding another, the fact that the radio message was the cause of the impeding does not amount to a mitigating factor."
Hamilton naturally avoided any sort of penalty points on his licence - but will now face a harder race from row four rather than row two.
