Piastri hit with three-place grid penalty for impeding Lawson in Monza Qualifying

Oscar Piastri has been handed a three-place grid penalty for the Italian Grand Prix after the stewards found him guilty of impeding Liam Lawson in Qualifying.

Red Bull substitute Lawson closed in on Piastri’s McLaren (which had just left the pits) through Monza’s first chicane during the closing stages of Q2 – the New Zealander subsequently expressing his frustration over the radio and missing the Q3 cut.

After hearing from both drivers, Red Bull and McLaren team representatives, and reviewing the range of data available to them, the stewarding panel settled on a grid drop for the Australian.

That means Piastri will fall from third to sixth on the grid, promoting Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, as well as the Red Bull of Lawson’s team mate, Max Verstappen.

Lawson meanwhile, is set to start from the back of the grid due to his Red Bull being fitted with new power unit components.

The stewards’ decision document and explanation read: “On leaving the pits, the driver of Car 81 (Piastri) was advised that ‘Verstappen, Lawson and Sainz just crossing, Sainz has pitted, just Verstappen and Lawson, watch out for them as you join’.

“The driver of Car 81 stated that he was not alerted to the fact that VER and LAW were on push laps, but realised as he was almost at Turn 1 that VER was on a push lap. He slowed significantly and kept to the right to allow VER to pass, but was unable to do anything to avoid impeding LAW who was close behind.

“The stewards accept that with the information he had, and the situation he was placed in, the driver of Car 81 had, at this stage, no other options available and hence, inadvertently, and also unnecessarily, impeded Car 30.”

Giving his take before the penalty was applied, Piastri said: “It was a tricky situation to manage. I was coming out of the pits and got told that Lawson and Verstappen were coming, but I kind of had to jump on the brakes pretty heavily to get out of Max’s way, and then I was just stuck in a very awkward spot with Liam.”

Lawson, meanwhile, said: “To be honest, we should really have the speed to get through [to Q3] anyway. We had quite good speed yesterday, and then today, we’ve lost some performance.

“In general, the goal was to obviously try and help Max in Q3 and I never got there, so it’s not what we planned for, but I think our Qualifying was a bit compromised anyway.”