The stewards have confirmed that Andrea Kimi Antonelli should have been given a five-second time penalty before his final pit stop in the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
Antonelli exceeded track limits on four occasions during the race, which automatically triggers a five-second time penalty. The stewards, however, did not identify his fourth breach until later in the race.
Because Antonelli retired from the race, he will not serve the penalty. The FIA’s stewards’ guidelines state: “In cases where there is a single five second penalty which a driver is unable to serve due to retirement, the stewards will not convert that into a grid penalty for a subsequent race.”
Antonelli’s race engineer, Peter Bonnington, warned him early on that he had already gone off three times and that a further breach would risk a penalty. Later, Lando Norris’s race engineer told Norris they believed Antonelli had exceeded track limits four times.
The stewards initially recorded Antonelli’s infringements as three instances, all at turn 10, but subsequently identified a fourth breach at the same corner.
Antonelli’s fourth breach occurred about 12 minutes before his second pit stop. At that moment the stewards had only logged three infringements; the fourth was discovered later. Had the penalty been applied and served during that pit stop, Antonelli would have dropped a position to Norris.
The stewards acknowledged that Antonelli was not shown the black-and-white flag after his third infringement because one earlier infringement had only been detected later in the race. Nevertheless, they concluded this did not exempt him from the rules.
“The stewards acknowledge that the driver did not receive a black [and] white flag after his third infringement but rather after his fourth infringement as one earlier infringement was only detected later in the race. However, based on the current regulations and Driving Standards Guidelines, this does not exempt the driver from complying with the regulations.”
“As there might be some ambiguity in the relevant guidelines, the stewards recommend the FIA revisit the current procedures and guidelines as soon as possible,” the stewards added.
No other driver was penalised for more than two track-limits offences in the race. Antonelli had previously been handed a five-second time penalty for repeated track limits breaches in the Miami sprint race.
This article will be updated.
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