Audi has been given an official warning after the stewards ruled Nico Hulkenberg drove excessively slowly in qualifying.
The stewards handed the formal sanction after Charles Leclerc caught Hulkenberg’s slow-moving Audi in the tunnel at the Monte-Carlo circuit. The stewards found Hulkenberg’s race engineer gave him incorrect information about the traffic behind him.
“Car 16 [Leclerc] was on a prep lap and car 27 [Hulkenberg] was on a cool-down lap and therefore the two cars were on different speed strategies,” the stewards noted. “Car 27 was advised by the team that it was ‘all clear behind’ and this was not correct and accordingly a warning is imposed on the team.
The penalty does not affect Hulkenberg’s qualifying position. He will start Sunday’s race 13th on the grid.
The stewards have also fined Williams €5,000 for obstructing Arvid Lindblad’s car in the pit lane. The incident occured when Alexander Albon arrived at the Williams pit while Carlos Sainz Jnr’s car was already being serviced.
“Car 55 [Sainz] was already stopped in front of the Williams team garage area as car 23 [Albon] approached,” the stewards noted. “Car 23 drove around car 55 and in doing so prevented, for a short time, car 41 [Lindblad] from entering its pit stop position. In doing so, car 41 narrowly missed running over the foot of one of the mechanics attending to car 23.
“The Williams team admitted that it could have handled the situation differently and hence a formal warning is issued for that, and more importantly, a fine is imposed for the potential safety issue.”
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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