Gasly handed grid penalty after Qualifying incident at the British Grand Prix

Pierre Gasly will drop three places on the grid for Sunday’s British Grand Prix after being handed a penalty following Qualifying.

It was confirmed during the session that Gasly would be investigated afterwards for alleged impeding in Q1, with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll having to run off line to avoid the Alpine when the Canadian was on a flying lap.

Gasly and team representatives attended a stewards’ hearing after Qualifying, where it was decided that the Frenchman had “unnecessarily impeded” Stroll and would serve a three-place grid drop at the next race he participates in.

This means that he is demoted from his original slot of P12 to P15 for Sunday’s event at Silverstone.

In a document released after the hearing, it was explained that Stroll had been on a timed lap when he approached Gasly – on an in-lap – towards Turn 15, and that the Alpine “remained on the racing line at a slow speed”.

It goes on to state that Gasly did not have functioning radio at the time and that he “expected another driver (Kimi Antonelli), to remain behind him rather than overtake, as he understood Antonelli not to be on a timed lap”.

The document continues: “Gasly remained at a slow speed on the racing line and the evidence showed that the driver had information available to him, including the dashboard display, to appreciate Stroll was approaching on a timed lap.

“In those circumstances, the stewards determined that Gasly unnecessarily impeded Stroll and therefore impose the standard penalty of a three grid position drop.”

With this pushing Gasly down to 15th, the change to the order promotes Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg up into 12th, with Haas’ Ollie Bearman and Williams’ Carlos Sainz also moving to 13th and 14th.