Bottas under threat of back-to-back grid penalties in Austria, Sainz also summoned to stewards

Valtteri Bottas faces the prospect of serving back-to-back penalties as the Mercedes driver is under investigation following qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Bottas has been summoned to see the stewards and faces a charge of driving unnecessarily slowly through turns nine and 10 at the Red Bull Ring.

In a second version of the event notes issued by FIA race director Michael Masi on Saturday, he warned that "during any practice session, any driver intending to create a gap in front of him in order to get a clear lap should not attempt to do this between the entry to turn 9 through to the exit of turn 10.

"Any driver seen to have done this will be reported to the stewards as being in breach of article 27.4 of the sporting regulations."

That particular article states that "at no time may a car be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person".

The incident may relate to the fact a queue of cars were lining up late in the lap to start their final flying laps in the second qualifying session.

It resulted in a furious Fernando Alonso being held up in his Alpine by Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel, an incident the stewards are also investigating.

Last week, Bottas was penalised three grid places for his spin in the pit lane which saw him drop from second on the grid to the fifth.

On this occasion, Bottas only qualified fifth behind polesitter Max Verstappen in his Red Bull, McLaren's Lando Norris, the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez and Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, who qualified 11th, has also been summoned to see the stewards for the same offence.

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

Lewis Hamilton goes from Karate Kid to Samurai Warrior with Kill Bill guru

• 2 hours ago

F1 Results Today: 2026 Japanese Grand Prix times and positions

• 3 hours ago

Oscar Piastri blames 'mirror system' after being hit with FIA warning

• Yesterday 21:55

Max Verstappen reveals why he kicked out F1 journalist at Japanese Grand Prix

• Yesterday 21:14

'It's better to quit': Will Max Verstappen take F1 icon's advice?

• Yesterday 20:55

Lando Norris on brink of FIA penalty after Japanese Grand Prix disaster

• Yesterday 20:18