Sebastian Vettel has been demoted to sixth on the grid for the Austrian GP after being found guilty of impeding Renault’s Carlos Sainz during qualifying.
The Ferrari driver had qualified behind Mercedes pair Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton at the Red Bull Ring.
But Vettel has been relegated to sixth after the stewards imposed a three-place penalty for the incident with Sainz during Q2.
Vettel had explained to Sky F1 that he had been unsighted as the Renault climbed the hill at the Red Bull Ring and wasn’t given any warning by his Ferrari team that Sainz was closing in.
But, while stewards accepted Vettel was not warned of the oncoming Renault over Ferrari team radio and could not see Sainz in his mirrors, they ruled that ‘being aware of the issue of rear vision with his mirrors, [Vettel] should not have been so slow and on the racing line, during a slowdown lap in qualification’.
Stewards said a drop of three grid positions was ‘consistent with all other similar incidents’ so far this season. They also placed an additional penalty point on Vettel’s superlicence, taking him on to six for the last 12 months.
Vettel’s penalty promotes team-mate Kimi Raikkonen to third, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to fourth and Haas’ driver Romain Grosjean to fifth.
Vettel will start sixth on row three ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, with the German now four places behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton who he trails by 14 points.
Speaking to Sky F1 before the penalty was confirmed, Vettel said: “It’s impossible to see, I wasn’t told anything, normally I get told very well.
“I can only apologise and fortunately it didn’t make a difference for him.”
Sainz, who progressed to the top-10 shootout and qualified ninth, had to run off track at Turn One to avoid the Ferrari, damaging his car in the process.
