Oscar Piastri hit with three-place Italian GP grid penalty

Oscar Piastri has been handed a three-place grid penalty for the Italian Grand Prix after impeding Liam Lawson during qualifying at Monza. The penalty drops the McLaren driver from third to sixth on the grid for Sunday's race, promoting Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen by one position each.

The incident occurred in the dying moments of Q2, as Lawson - competing in his second Red Bull race of the year as a replacement for the injured Isack Hadjar - was on his final flying lap.

Piastri was on an out-lap approaching the first chicane and slowed to allow Lawson's Red Bull team-mate Verstappen through, with Red Bull having sent its drivers out earlier.

But the McLaren driver then slotted in ahead of Lawson through the chicane, delaying the New Zealander on the exit of the corner leading onto Curva Grande.

"The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 81 (Oscar Piastri), the driver of Car 30 (Liam Lawson), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence," the FIA decision reads. "On leaving the pits, the driver of Car 81 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.

"Therefore the standard penalty of a drop of 3 grid positions is imposed."

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

Speaking before his meeting with the stewards, Piastri said he had not realised Lawson was approaching him.

“Yeah, I was coming out of the pits and, I mean, the speed difference out of the pits is so, so big here,” Piastri said at the FIA press conference. “So, yeah, I don't really know where he came from. I need to review with the team.”

Lawson subsequently failed to progress from Q2, ending the session in 14th place.

“Yeah, I mean, it just wasn't ideal,” Lawson said. “We obviously left it to the end there to try and put a lap together. So I was pretty hot after just one call. And then, yeah, obviously not ideal getting blocked at turn one.

“But I mean, the goal was to try and focus this weekend on the race anyway. Obviously, we've got the penalty for tomorrow. So yesterday we were very long runs focus anyway.”

Lawson is already set to start from the back of the grid due to new power unit components being fitted to the Red Bull he is driving this weekend.

But despite his grid penalty, Red Bull still had a reason to try to get Lawson into Q3. The plan was for him to provide Verstappen with a tow, which could have given his team-mate an advantage on Monza's long straights.

With Lawson knocked out in Q2, Verstappen was Red Bull's sole representative in the final part of qualifying. He qualified sixth, before Piastri's three-place penalty promoted him to fifth on the grid.

A three-place grid penalty is the standard sanction in such cases when the impeding occurs during qualifying.