Nico Hulkenberg has fallen to 19th place in the sprint race results at the Red Bull Ring after the stewards handed him a 10-second penalty.
Hulkenberg finished in 14th place having started 17th, but was deemed to have forced Fernando Alonso off the track at turn three.The pair had been battling over 14th place on lap 21 when the Haas driver attempted a move up the inside of the slowest turn on the track. Hulkenberg ran deep into the corner, which pushed Alonso out wide with the Aston Martin eventually running off the track. Alonso then lost a second position to Daniel Ricciardo as a result, eventually finishing down in 16th place.
Speaking to race engineer Chris Cronin on team radio after the move, Alonso described Hulkenberg’s pass as a “very optimistic move,” adding he “missed the corner.”
The stewards announced the incident would be investigated after the race. They eventually decided that Hulkenberg had forced the Aston Martin off track illegally.
“The driver of car 27 [Hulkenberg] attempted an overtake on car 14 into turn three but locked up and missed the apex,” explained the stewards. “[Hulkenberg] understeered to the very edge of the track, thereby preventing car 14 from turning in and forcing the other driver off track.”
As a result of his infraction, Hulkenberg was handed a 10-second time penalty. That dropped him from 14th in the provisional results down to 19th, ahead only of Zhou Guanyu
The stewards also handed Hulkenberg two penalty points for the incident, his first penalty points on his superlicence over the last 12 months. Hulkenberg’s Haas team mate, Kevin Magnussen is currently the closest driver in the field to receiving a one-race suspension for reaching 12 penalty points, currently having ten.
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Nick T.
29th June 2024, 13:16
That’s total bull shut. There’s no racing allowed in F1 anymore, unless you’re George or Lewis. Then you can slam into anyone. I wonder if this is Herbert trying to look like he’s not biased.
BTW, this was F1’s headline:
Verstappen beats Piastri and Norris to victory after epic Austria Sprint battle
What a joke.
MadMax (@madmax)
29th June 2024, 13:31
The only one allowed to slam into anybody is VER. Just due to having a car .5 sec a lap quicker than any other he doesnt need to anymore.
melanos
29th June 2024, 15:28
Wrong in both accounts and the car excuse down not hold anymore
Dale
29th June 2024, 17:36
You Hammifans are really weak minded
Coventry Climax
30th June 2024, 1:02
Ow ow ow, don’t say that! Might cost you 40.000!
Coventry Climax
30th June 2024, 1:01
Agree. Like I commented earlier already.
Nick T.
29th June 2024, 13:18
At least the penalty doesn’t matter. He didn’t lose any points and it won’t effect the GP.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
29th June 2024, 13:43
The main event is still to come.
Headline here of Verstappen repassing to take blah blah , while lacking the extreme hyperbolic frothing at the keyboard of the other site could just as easily been “Norris fails to make move stick and loses two places.”
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
29th June 2024, 13:46
For me, this is the wrong call. Alonso wasn’t forced off, he could have made the corner.
Also, had it been Hulkenberg’s team mate in the same situation, I doubt the stewards would have also given him two penalty points, and the automatic ban they would have caused.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th June 2024, 14:36
Yes, absolutely, this avoiding to penalise drivers who are very close to getting a race ban is probably the best example of inconsistency for the stewards.
BasCB (@bascb)
29th June 2024, 14:37
Yeah, had Alonso not locked up himself as well, he could have just driven to the inside and stayed on track. And yeah, i am convinced that they would have found a reason to not have to give Magnussen that ban Keith.
The rules are clear, but the stewarding is far too inconsistent.
Nick T.
29th June 2024, 16:57
Wish you had expressed the same opinion for the Alonso/Sainz incident in China. That was even marginally more absurd.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
30th June 2024, 3:52
…in your opinion…
Nick T.
30th June 2024, 12:09
It was…
…in the vast majority of opinions…
…even more than just marginally more absurd.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
30th June 2024, 3:50
@keithcollantine I was quite shocked to read about this penalty this morning (in Australia). I understood why it would be reviewed given the way things are nowadays, but I could not agree with you more.
I get that hard racing and optimistic moves should not result in significant contact or forcing drivers off the track, even if accidental, but in this case Alonso was at most ‘forced off-line’, and the Hulk only really disadvantaged himself. Of course we all have our own opinions and I’m confident if all of us here were given 100 potential infringements to review it would be unlikely to have any two sets of identical rulings. But I see this decision as one that really undermines the notion of ‘racing’.
Nick T.
30th June 2024, 12:10
Thank god for the disclaimer that that was your opinion. Otherwise, I would have that it and your luggage was someone else’s.