MIAMI — A tricky Friday afternoon will see a fair more durable Saturday morning for Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas.
Hours following the conclusion of Dash Qualifying on the Miami Grand Prix, Bottas was hit with a three-place grid penalty by race officers for impeding Oscar Piastri in the course of the session. After being eradicated in SQ1 after putting 18th, the penalty means Bottas will begin Saturday’s F1 Dash race behind the sector.
The incident occurred throughout SQ1, when Piastri got here up on Bottas whereas on a push lap. Bottas had simply completed a push lap of his personal and was on the left aspect of the observe. You possibly can see the incident from a number of angles right here:
As you possibly can hear, Piastri known as out the incident as a penalty instantly, whereas Bottas sounded pissed off that he had not been given sufficient warning by his group.
Race officers summarized the incident as follows, largely in keeping with how the drivers considered it:
“On the straight earlier than Flip 1, Automobile 77 [Bottas] was being pushed slowly on the racing line after ending a quick lap, whereas Automobile 81 [Piastri] was approaching on a quick lap. Automobile 81 and Automobile 77 wanted to take evasive motion to keep away from a collision.
“The first duty rests with the driving force to make sure that he doesn’t place himself ready whereby he unnecessarily impedes one other driver. Right here Automobile 77 was driving slowly on the racing line and induced to the scenario that ensued.
“Nevertheless, in the course of the listening to each group and driver of Automobile 77 admitted that the group had not warned the driving force of Automobile 77 that Automobile 81 was approaching on a quick lap. That was clearly an error on the group’s half and contributed considerably to the incident.”
Whereas Bottas was given a three-place grid drop, he’ll solely drop two locations having certified in P18.
The transfer comes as Sauber modified race engineers for Bottas following the Chinese language Grand Prix. The driving force talked in regards to the transfer throughout Thursday’s press conferences. “It was fairly a sudden change,” stated Bottas on Friday. “Clearly it’s a dash weekend, so working with a recent man shall be not straightforward, however clearly [we’re] making an attempt to take advantage of out of it. He’s getting a whole lot of assist but it surely’s fairly a sudden change.
“It’s a part of the type of reconstruction for the group. There’s some folks leaving, some folks becoming a member of. And clearly lots of these selections will not be in my fingers. I don’t do these selections.”
