Charles Leclerc’s Styrian Grand Prix weekend took another turn for the worst on Saturday after he was given by a three-place grid penalty.
Leclerc was eliminated in the second qualifying session at the Red Bull Ring and finished 11th. After the session he was summoned to the stewards for impeding Alpha Tauri’s Daniil Kvyat during Q2.
The stewards found Leclerc had been given adequate warning Kvyat was approaching.
Their verdict said: “The driver of Car 16 had been adequately informed by the team after turn 7 that Car 26 would be approaching and that he should watch out for traffic.
It added: “Video evidence and telemetry data clearly showed that the driver of Car 26 was impeded by Car 16 in turns 9 and 10. Although the weather conditions might have affected the visibility in the rear view mirrors and the driver had no intention of impeding another car, the Stewards determine that the driver of Car 16 must have been aware of Car 26 approaching, could have reacted differently and therefore impose the above mentioned penalty”.
On top of his grid penalty, he has been given one penalty point on his superlicence. That brings his rolling total for the past 12 months to three penalty points.
Leclerc will start Sunday’s race in 14th.
He also had to see the stewards over another infringement having allegedly not reacted appropriately to red flags. However, the stewards decided to take no further action.
In that instance, the stewards said: “The driver braked hard, did not accelerate after turn 9 and considered entering the pit lane by crossing the white line at pit entry, but felt it would have been unsafe do so. The driver reacted appropriately, continued on track and drove the lap afterwards at safe speeds.”
Ferrari had another disappointing day in Austria. Sebastian Vettel managed to progress to Q3, but could only qualify 10th.