Andrea Kimi Antonelli will start the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race from the front row after the stewards cleared him of impeding Lando Norris.
The stewards also ruled Pierre Gasly, who qualified seventh, did not impede Max Verstappen and should receive no penalty.
The McLaren driver, who qualified third behind Antonelli, complained he was held up by the Mercedes when he encountered it at turn one.
However after Norris told the stewards he was not on a flying lap at the time, but a what he called a “pushing warm-up lap”, they deemed Antonelli had not committed an offence.
“The driver of car one (Lando Norris) told us that he was on a “pushing warm up lap” and not on a push lap. In other words, he was not actively seeking to set a meaningful lap time when car 12 (Kimi Antonelli) came out of the pit lane and onto the track,” the stewards noted.
“Had car one been on a push lap then, given the position of car 12 on the track, car 12 would have unnecessarily impeded car one.
“In the light of the clear position taken by the driver of car one that he was not impeded by car 12 as he was not seeking to set a meaningful lap time, we took no further action.”
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In Gasly’s case the stewards ruled Verstappen “was on a push lap” when the pair met at turn 14 but ruled the Alpine driver did not “unnecessarily” impede him.
“Car three [Verstappen] was on a push lap and came across car 10 [Gasly] on what the driver of car three described as his optimal racing line at the exit of turn 14. Car three had to drive around car 10 but did not lift. The driver of car 10 explained that he was aware of car three’s approach and considered that the safest option was to stay to the left edge of the track. The driver of car three said that the position of car 10 affected his preferred line but he said that he was not impeded.
“Although the stewards considered that the driver of car 10 could theoretically have taken a different approach to the turn and stayed to the right at the exit, given the concession by the driver of car three that he was not unnecessarily impeded by car 10 in this case, we determined to take no further action.”
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2026 Chinese Grand Prix
- “What the hell is happening?” Frustrated Leclerc lost “half a second” on straight
- Antonelli keeps front row start, Gasly stays seventh as stewards clear pair of impeding
- Mercedes made early start to new power unit project ‘like last time’ – Hamilton
- “The whole day has been a disaster” says Verstappen after qualifying eighth
- Russell heads sprint race qualifying but second-placed Antonelli faces investigation
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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