FIA announce Kimi Antonelli penalty point after Hungarian Grand Prix incident

The FIA have announced that Kimi Antonelli has been handed a penalty point at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Kimi Antonelli recovered from a tricky qualifying session on Saturday where he was given a three-place grid drop to start seventh to eventually battle back and earn a hard fought third place in a race won by McLaren's Lando Norris.

Crucially he pipped his closest rival in the championship Lewis Hamilton, enabling him to open up a 50 point (two-race wins) gap to the Ferrari star as F1 enters the summer break.

However, he wasn't just given a three-place grid drop on Saturday after qualifying, he was slapped with a penalty point too for failing to lift off enough at a yellow flag incident caused by Max Verstappen spinning off at the final corner.

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FIA stewards verdict on Antonelli

The stewards said: The driver of Car 12 [Antonelli] stated that on seeing the yellow flag and light panel, he lifted off the throttle earlier than his previous push lap. This was verified by the telemetry.

"However the reduction in speed occurred for a very short period, and in fact the car’s speed when passing the scene of the incident involving Car 3, was slightly higher than that on the previous push lap.

"The mini sector time was only 0.03 second slower than his best time for that mini sector, and whilst, because he had lifted 16 metres earlier, he was 14 km/h slower entering the yellow flag sector, but was 3 km/h faster when passing the incident site due to less application of the brakes entering the corner.

"The FIA representatives noted that the speed reduction in the mini sector was less than 1 per cent.

"The Stewards considered this incident to be different to other incidents that have resulted in no further action, because unlike those cases, there was no significant speed delta through the mini sector compared to the driver’s previous fastest time under similar circumstances.

"The recommended penalty according to the penalty guidelines, for this offence, is a drop of 5 grid positions, however in mitigation of penalty, we considered that the driver did make a reduction in speed, albeit, in our determination, an insufficient and unsustained one.

"Further, the driver had limited time and distance to react. Hence a lower penalty is applied."

How do F1 penalty points work?

Drivers are allowed to a threshold of 12 penalty points and if they exceed that at any time, they are forced into a one-race ban for the next applicable race. All points picked remain active for one year before expiring.

Antonelli's latest penalty point is his first of the season but with four points means no other driver has more, with Haas's Oliver Bearman also having four.

However, Antonelli is due to see three of those points expire quickly following the summer break, with two to disappear on August 31 and another on September 7.

F1 driver penalty points after Hungarian GP

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Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

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