Piastri gets grid penalty for Lawson Q2 incident
Oscar Piastri has lost third-place on the grid for Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix after impeding Liam Lawson in qualifying.
Towards the end of Q2, the McLaren driver exited the pits on an out-lap just as the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson were beginning their final push laps.
The Red Bulls were running out of sync with the field as Lawson had towed Verstappen initially and Verstappen was trying to help Lawson get through to Q3 by returning the favour.
Piastri managed to get out of the way of Verstappen, but as Piastri turned into the first chicane he baulked Lawson, who lost valuable time that he was unable to recover later in the lap.
Piastri was summoned to see the stewards after qualifying, and explained that while had been warned about the Red Bull duo approaching, he was not aware they were on push laps.
When he realised that Verstappen was indeed going for a time, he got out of the way as best he could.
However, due to his positioning, he had no choice but to continue to roll into the chicane where he impeded Lawson.
Although the stewards accepted that Piastri had been left in a tricky spot, they felt that there was no option but to serve him with a penalty for blocking a rival.
A statement issued by the FIA said: “The Stewards accept that with the information he had, and the situation he was placed in, the driver of Car 81 had, at this stage, no other options available and hence, inadvertently, and also unnecessarily, impeded Car 30.
“Therefore the standard penalty of a drop of 3 grid positions is imposed.”
The penalty drops Piastri from third down to sixth, and means that Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton will move up to the second row behind Pierre Gasly and George Russell.
Lawson’s failure to get through to Q3 meant that Verstappen was left alone to try to find a slipstream, with the team having hoped that Lawson could act as support in helping give his team-mate a tow thanks to the engine change penalty that puts him to the back of the grid for Sunday's race.
