Four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel has been issued a three-position grid penalty for the Austrian Grand Prix after qualifying for the race.
Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel qualified in third place for the ninth race of the 21-race 2018 Formula 1 season, the Austrian Grand Prix. He qualified alongside teammate Kimi Raikkonen behind the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport teammates of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton in first and second place, respectively.
Vettel recorded a top lap time of 63.484 seconds (152.145 miles per hour) around the 10-turn, 2.683-mile (4.318-kilometer) Red Bull Ring road course in Spielberg, Styria, Austria to take the third starting position on the grid.
However, the four-time Formula 1 champion has now been issued a three-position grid penalty and is set to start the race in sixth place.
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Vettel was issued this penalty for impeding Renault Sport’s Carlos Sainz Jr. in the second of three qualifying sessions for the race. The front wing on Sainz Jr.’s Renault was damaged as a result of Vettel impeding him, albeit clearly unintentionally, when he did.
Sainz Jr. went on to get into the third and final round of qualifying anyway, and he qualified in ninth place alongside teammate Nico Hulkenberg in 10th for tomorrow’s race, as both Renault drivers advanced out of the first and second qualifying sessions and into the third once again.
Here is what Vettel had to say about being issued this three-position grid penalty, according to Formula 1.
"“Obviously I wasn’t meaning to block him or screw his lap. I was looking in the mirror, I passed him finishing my lap and I wasn’t told anything. So I’m still looking in my mirrors, I couldn’t see anything, checked again after Turn 1 and nothing to see. The problem by then obviously was that he was side by side, so fair enough, I can only apologise. But there was no intention obviously.”"
Here is what Sainz Jr. had to say about Vettel impeding him and then being issued a three-position grid penalty for it, according to Formula 1.
"“I don’t want to put too much blame on Sebastian because it has happened to me before that your engineer doesn’t tell you there is a car starting the lap and you just simply don’t look in your mirrors. I got a penalty for that before, but it is not always the fault of the driver if you are not told.“But it did cost me a front wing, a repair. I was angry at the moment because I thought it had cost me my Q3 – it was my second run of Q2 and we were pushing flat out. But thank God I had a good enough lap at the start of Q2 to go through.”"
Raikkonen, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and Haas’ Romain Grosjean qualified in fourth, fifth and sixth place, respectively for the Austria Grand Prix. As a result of the fact that Vettel was issued a three-position grid penalty for impeding Sainz, they are scheduled to start in third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
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Will Sebastian Vettel rebound from the three-position grid penalty that he was given after qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix? Will he be able to finish on the podium or perhaps even win the race from the sixth place starting position? Tune in to ESPN2 for the live broadcast of the action from tomorrow’s race at the Red Bull Ring starting at 9:10 a.m. ET tomorrow.