Ricciardo receives three-place grid penalty, Hamilton gains two places

F1 News

26 March 2022 at 22:05
Last update 27 March 2022 at 17:12
27
  • GPblog.com

Daniel Ricciardo has received a three-place grid penalty from the stewards following an incident with Esteban Ocon during qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Due to the grid penalty and the retirement of Mick Schumacher, a number of drivers move further forward.

Ricciardo drove slowly around the track during qualifying and as a result got in the way of Ocon, who was working on a fast lap. The FIA reviewed the incident and came to the decision to give the McLaren driver a three-place penalty for Sunday's race. Ricciardo also receives an additional penalty point on his license and McLaren receive a fine of 10,000 euros.

As a result, the Australian will drop from P12 to P15. Guanyu Zhou and Lance Stroll move further forward. Schumacher experienced a haevt crash during Q2 of qualifying and had to be taken to the hospital for a checkup. Haas announced on Saturday evening that the German will not compete in the race. As no reserve driver is allowed to participate in a race without having driven at least one practice session, Haas will only appear at the start tomorrow with Kevin Magnussen.

Hamilton gains two spots

The drivers behind Schumacher also move up a spot as a result. Lewis Hamilton, who only qualified on P16 and did not proceed to Q2, wins two spots and is now on P14. However, Toto Wolff informed the media that Mercedes will work on the set-up of its car, which could mean that Hamilton will start from the pit lane.