Formula 1 News: Bottas hit with 3-place grid penalty

Valtteri Bottas has been hit with a three-place grid drop for the Sprint at the Miami Grand Prix following an incident with Oscar Piastri during Friday’s Sprint Qualifying session.

Piastri had been on a flying lap when he approached Bottas driving slowly on the racing line before Turn 1, resulting in both cars having to take avoiding action.

When both drivers and their respective team representatives were summoned to the stewards following the session, Bottas and Kick Sauber acknowledged that the squad had not warned him that Piastri was approaching.

As such, they were deemed at fault for the incident and Bottas was handed a drop of three grid positions for the next Sprint session.

In their note following the hearing, the stewards stated that “the primary responsibility rests with the driver to ensure that he does not place himself in a position whereby he unnecessarily impedes another driver.”

They added that “here Car 77 was driving slowly on the racing line and caused the situation that ensured”, though it was acknowledged that the failure of the team to inform Bottas of Piastri’s approach was “an error on the team’s part and contributed significantly to the incident.”

With Bottas having originally qualified in P18, the penalty drops him to the back of the field in P20. This promotes the Williams pair of Logan Sargeant and Alex Albon up into P18 and P19 respectively.