Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo, Hungaroring, 2019

Giovinazzi given grid penalty for blocking Stroll after radio message error

2019 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Antonio Giovinazzi has been given a three-place grid penalty for the Hungarian Grand Prix after his team failed to warn him he was in danger of holding up Lance Stroll.

The stewards found Alfa Romeo incorrectly told Giovinazzi that he was “in phase” with Stroll, when the Racing Point driver was in fact coming past him on a flying lap.

“Notwithstanding the fact that the team incorrectly informed the driver of car 99 [Giovinazzi] that he was ‘in phase’ with car 18 [Stroll], when in fact car 18 was on a push lap, it is the driver’s responsibility to ensure that on an in lap, he makes all reasonable endeavours to watch for following cars that are on a push lap and to ensure they are not impeded,” the stewards explained.

“It was noted that car 99 was shown a blue flashing light halfway between turns three and four. Telemetry and GPS data confirmed that car 18 lost considerable time through the section of track involved. The stewards believe the driver of car 99 could, and should, have moved from the racing line prior to turn four. Accordingly, the driver unnecessarily impeded car 18.”

In addition to his penalty, which drops Giovinazzi to 17th place on the grid, the Alfa Romeo driver was also given a penalty point on his licence, moving him onto a total of four.

Stroll qualified 19th, but said his lowly starting position was not solely down to Giovinazzi blocking him. “We really struggled in practice this morning and that put us on the back foot for qualifying,” he said.

“I was blocked on one of my laps and there were also some mistakes from my side which proved costly because I think it could have been much better.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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10 comments on “Giovinazzi given grid penalty for blocking Stroll after radio message error”

  1. Stroll qualified 19th, but said his lowly starting position was not solely down to Giovinazzi blocking him. “We really struggled in practice this morning and that put us on the back foot for qualifying,” he said.
    “I was blocked on one of my laps and there were also some mistakes from my side which proved costly because I think it could have been much better.”

    Very honest of him, he could easily have gone on to blame it all on Giovinazzi.

    1. Atleast Stroll isnt a spoilt rich brat.

    2. Indeed he’s no sainz jr, no kvyat, on the other hand he does not have to toot his own horn for a career.

  2. If it wasn’t for all the other people driving around then Lance would be on pole …. and he might even win!

    1. Lance doesn’t strike me as the sort of person who gets gratification from winning a one horse race. In fact I doubt he’d get gratification from winning anything less than a fair race.

  3. So his team was at fault. That means he should be given a meaningless 5k fine doesnt it?

    1. I think he should’ve cut the track and get away with it.

    2. I think you’re thinking of another team who get paltry fines for endangering people’s lives in the pitlane. “Blue lights” in Qualifying? Since when? As far as I know Blue Lights aren’t legal in Qualifying so ignoring them shouldn’t carry any punishment.

    3. No of course not Moi, firstly, this is not the race, and secondly, this is not that team. Also, the FIA explained they will ‘change’ that practice now (to be what it used to be).

  4. Another nonsense penalty. Either do one lap shoot outs or let them deal with traffic.

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