Austrian Grand Prix: Starting grid with penalties applied

Charles Leclerc will head a grid jumbled up by many penalties for the Austrian Grand Prix after taking the second pole position of his F1 career in Spielberg.

Lewis Hamilton qualified alongside Leclerc on the front row, but suffered a three-place grid drop for blocking Kimi Raikkonen in Q1. As a result, Max Verstappen - last year's winner here - joins Leclerc on the front row.

Things get somewhat confusing from there, however, as Hamilton only drops two places to fourth, as Kevin Magnussen's five-place grid drop - from fifth- is applied before the Mercedes driver's, leaving a vacancy in the top five.

As such, sixth-placed Lando Norris was unable to fill that slot, and Hamilton gets a slight benefit, despite the sanction.

Sebastian Vettel was unable to set a time in Q3 after his Ferrari failed him, and is set to start ninth, gaining a place as a result of Magnussen's gearbox penalty.

There was no such luck for Nico Hulkenberg, himself facing a five-place drop, while Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon qualified knowing they would be starting from the back of the grid.

George Russell took a three-place grid penalty for blocking Daniil Kvyat in Q1, but confirmed a pit-lane start on race morning after Williams broke parc ferme to change his front wing.

Yet another change to the #AustrianGP grid on race morning.@GeorgeRussell63 will start from the pit-lane after taking a new front wing.#F1 pic.twitter.com/NIoVCh3FZi

— GPFans Global (@GPFansGlobal) June 30, 2019

Related

F1 on TV

Who is Harry Benjamin? The Sky F1 presenter stepping up for David Croft in select 2024 races

• Yesterday 14:58

Lando Norris

Norris reveals CHEEKY Alonso text after Austrian Grand Prix chaos

• July 6, 2023 13:57