Andrea Kimi Antonelli will start the Australian Grand Prix from the front row of the grid after his Mercedes team was investigated for releasing his car from the pits in an unsafe fashion.

His W17 was sent onto the track with a pair of sidepod coolers still attached. Both fell off and one was struck by Lando Norris’s McLaren, damaging its front wing.

The stewards fined Mercedes €7,500 (£6,500) for the infringement but did not impose a grid penalty on Antonelli. He will therefore start the race from second on the grid alongside team mate George Russell.

Mercedes told the stewards the team members overlooked the presence of the fans because it was still dealing with the disruption caused by its effort to repair the damage Antonelli’s car sustained when he crashed in final practice.

“The team explained that an incident in an earlier session in which car 12 had sustained significant damage meant that the division of labour within the team had to be changed to repair the damage within a short timeframe,” the stewards noted.

“Usually, a separate team member would have responsibility for inserting and removing each fan but the need to address legacy issues from the earlier incident during the session meant that the team member responsible for the fan on that side of the car was occupied on another task and the removal of the fan before the car was released from the garage was missed.”

Another team, Alpine, was also fined for releasing one of its cars from the garage in an unsafe fashion. The team was ordered to pay €5,000 (£4,300) after part of the left-front wheel assembly on Pierre Gasly’s car fell into the fast lane of the pits.

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“The team representative acknowledged the mistake and apologised for the lapse,” the stewards noted. “He explained that a mechanic had inadvertently failed to correctly secure the component during the preparation of the car, which resulted in the part detaching when the car left the garage. He further stated that the team had faced logistical challenges as not all parts had arrived in Melbourne in time, which meant that the team could not fully carry out its usual preparation procedures.”

The stewards also confirmed the three drivers who did not meet the requirement to lap within 107% of the fastest time in Q1 – Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz Jnr and Lance Stroll – will all be permitted to start the race. In Verstappen and Sainz’s cases, both had completed a significant number of practice laps which demonstrated their potential pace was sufficient.

However due to Aston Martin’s power unit problems, Stroll only set representative lap times in second practice, where his pace was 107.6% of the fastest time. Nonetheless the stewards permitted him to compete after considering “the general performance of the driver in competitions of the championship.”

In arguing their case, Aston Martin pointed out Stroll’s team mate Alonso had lapped within the 107% requirement, drew attention to Stroll’s long career in F1 and said he was withdrawn from qualifying out of necessity. “The team also highlighted that they took the decision to not have car 18 participate in qualifying, due to a damaged oil line in the car, out of prudence, to enable them to undertake further investigations,” the stewards noted.

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2026 Australian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine

Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 – when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring journalist, Keith began running the site full-time in 2010, achieving a long-held ambition to dedicate his full attention to his passion for motor racing. View all posts by Keith Collantine