Valtteri Bottas will start last in the sprint race on Saturday afternoon at the Hard Rock Stadiumactually just two places behind where he qualified after stewards deemed he had hampered Oscar Piastri’s McLaren during their near-collision in Friday night’s sprint qualifying.
The incident occurred with four minutes remaining in SQ1, when Bottas slowly entered Turn 1 after having completed a flying lap, while Piastri was quickly closing in behind after having started a timed lap.
The stewards considered that Sauber F1 Team “had not warned the driver of car 77 that car 81 was approaching on a flying lap” and that this was “obviously an error on the part of the team and contributed significantly to the incident.”
However, the stewards imposed the sanction on Bottas and not a fine on Sauber, since article 33.4 of the F1 sporting regulations establishes that “the main responsibility falls on the driver, who must ensure that he does not place himself in a position in which that unnecessarily impedes another pilot.
“In this case, car 77 was driving slowly along the racing line and caused the situation that occurred,” the bulletin added.
The incident draws attention because Bottas has a new race engineer for this weekend after what the Finn called “a fairly sudden change” made by Sauber between this event and the Chinese GP.
A group of drivers investigated for driving too slowly on the starting laps during SQ1 and SQ2 (for not respecting the delta time) were spared the sanction, as has been common in this type of situation in recent F1 seasons. Among them were Sergio Pérez and Fernando Alonso.
Complete decision of the F1 Miami GP stewards on Bottas
“The stewards listened to the driver of car 81 (Oscar Piastri), the driver of car 77 (Valtteri Bottas), the representatives of both teams and reviewed the data from the positioning/marshalling system, video, timing, telemetry, radio of the equipment and in-car video testing and determined that the driver of car 77 unnecessarily impeded car 81 during Sprint Qualifying.”
“On the straight before Turn 1, car 77 was rolling slowly along the racing line after completing a fast lap, while car 81 was approaching on a fast lap. Cars 81 and 77 had to act to avoid a collision”.
“The primary responsibility lies with the driver to ensure that he is not in a position that causes him to unnecessarily impede another driver. Here car 77 was traveling slowly on the track and caused the situation that occurred.”
“However, during the stewards’ meeting both the team and the driver of car 77 admitted that the team had not warned the driver of car 77 that car 81 was approaching on a fast lap. Obviously, that was a mistake by part of the team and contributed significantly to the incident.
“In view of the above, we impose a penalty of a loss of 3 positions on the grid in the sprint race.”
