(Motorsport-Total.com) – Just a few weeks ago, George Russell caused discussions during qualifying in Austria because he drove to pole position despite yellow flags for a Max Verstappen off-track excursion. At that time, his teammate Kimi Antonelli had aborted his lap and was unable to improve – that shouldn’t happen to him next time, he said then.
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As fate would have it, a similar situation occurred on Saturday at the Hungaroring: once again, the yellow flag was waved after Verstappen went off, but this time Antonelli completed his lap and improved his time by another tenth of a second. The only problem: it ended up costing him dearly.
The stewards handed the Italian a three-place grid penalty, dropping him from fourth to seventh position. According to them, Antonelli did not slow down sufficiently.
Although telemetry data confirmed that the championship leader lifted off the throttle earlier than on the previous lap, the time span for this was said to be very short, so Antonelli was even slightly faster when passing the incident spot.
Antonelli 3 km/h faster at incident spot
“The time in the mini-sector was only 0.03 seconds slower than his best time in that mini-sector,” the reasoning states. “Although he was 14 km/h slower when entering the yellow sector, having lifted off the throttle 16 meters earlier, he was 3 km/h faster when passing the accident site because he braked less hard before the corner.”
According to the FIA, the speed reduction in the mini-sector was therefore less than one percent.
“The Stewards viewed this incident as different compared to other incidents that remained without further consequences. Unlike those cases, there was no significant speed delta in the mini-sector compared to the driver’s previous best time under similar conditions.”
Actually, the regulations stipulate a five-place grid penalty for such a violation, but because Antonelli reduced his speed – albeit insufficiently in the stewards’ opinion – they considered this a mitigating factor. “In addition, the driver had little time and distance to react. Therefore, a lesser penalty is applied.”
Antonelli: Yellow flag cost him third place
Before the decision, Mercedes was convinced they would get away without a penalty: “He lifted off the throttle. So normally it should be okay,” said Motorsport Director Toto Wolff, and Antonelli himself also believed he was in the clear.
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“The yellow flag came out just as I was entering the corner,” he said after the session. “So I really did my best to lift off. I lifted off, but of course, that also meant I gave up quite a lot of minimum speed compared to before, and that was a shame.”
He generally struggles with the yellow flag, which he says cost him third place. “The thing is: I had to coast all the way to the apex, and on the lap before, the last corner was terrible. So I knew there was still quite a lot of time to be gained there,” said the Italian.
“I don’t really believe in pole position. I would probably have been very close, maybe half a tenth behind Lando, but still not good enough for pole. But third place would have been certain.”
Toto Wolff: Rather McLaren pole than Ferrari pole
Nevertheless, it was the first pole for another team this year for Mercedes. The fact that it ultimately went to Lando Norris and not a Ferrari is a small consolation for Wolff. “I prefer that,” he told Sky. Because Ferrari “are our opponents for the championship.”
In general, Mercedes in Hungary was “simply not good enough,” as the Austrian emphasizes. “We knew Budapest would be difficult. It wasn’t really our track, it was always a McLaren and Ferrari track, but yes, nobody is happy.”
According to Antonelli, Mercedes somehow got lost, especially in Q2. “Especially with the tires, we felt completely out of the window. That put us a bit on the back foot,” he says. “And having to make such a huge step in Q3 is never ideal, because the car naturally changed quite a bit. It wasn’t that easy to get the maximum out of it.”
“We were already past the peak of the tires on the warm-up lap. From Turn 1, you could feel that the grip wasn’t there. And there was a lot of sliding on all four wheels, especially in the last sector,” said the Italian. “Simply no traction at all, above all. That naturally took away a bit of confidence at first.”
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