F1 Chinese Grand Prix: FIA announce Mercedes penalty verdict after Shanghai incident

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Chinese Grand Prix

FIA announce Mercedes penalty verdict after Chinese Grand Prix incident

The Silver Arrows looked strong in Shanghai

Chris Deeley

Friday 13 March 2026 11:10 Updated: 11:42

The FIA have confirmed a penalty verdict for Mercedes after one Silver Arrows star was involved in an incident at this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.

Kimi Antonelli avoided a costly penalty in Shanghai after stewards decided not to take action against him for a potential impeding incident.

The teenager held up Lando Norris at Turn 1 in SQ2 on Friday, with the reigning world champion complaining on the radio that he'd been planning to 'push' that lap.

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However, Norris and McLaren subsequently clarified when called to see the stewards that the reigning champion was on a 'pushing warm-up lap', rather than an actual push lap – meaning that Antonelli didn't interfere with a hot lap, and as such had no case to answer.

The stewards' statement did confirm that had Norris been on an actual push lap at the time, Antonelli's actions would have constituted impeding and he would have been punished.

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FIA stewards' statement on Antonelli 'impeding'

"The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 12 (Kimi Antonelli), the driver of Car 1 (Lando Norris), team representatives and video, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence.

"The driver of Car 1 (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. Had Car 1 been on a push lap then, given the position of Car 12 on the track, Car 12 would have unnecessarily impeded Car 1.

"In the light of the clear position taken by the driver of Car 1 that he was not impeded by Car 12 as he was not seeking to set a meaningful lap time, we took no further action."

As a result, Antonelli will keep his starting position of P2 in Saturday's Chinese GP sprint race, lining up on the front row once again alongside team-mate George Russell.

What could Kimi Antonelli's punishment have been?

Take it away, Sky Sports expert Bernie Collins!

“If they’re found to be guilty of impeding… it would be three grid positions as a standard penalty for that one, unless they think it was with intent or particularly dangerous, in which case it’s five grid positions, so it is significant.”

Mercedes FIA Kimi Antonelli Chinese Grand Prix