Penalty for impeding Piastri sends Bottas to back of grid

Valtteri Bottas has been given a three-place grid penalty for the sprint race for impeding Oscar Piastri during qualifying.

The stewards ruled Sauber had failed to give Bottas any warning the McLaren driver was approaching him. Piastri caught Bottas at turn one after the Sauber driver completed a flying lap.

“On the straight before turn one, car 77 [Bottas] was being driven slowly on the Racing line after finishing a fast lap, while car 81 [Piastri] was approaching on a fast lap. Car 81 and car 77 needed to take evasive action to avoid a collision.

“The primary responsibility rests with the driver to ensure that he does not place himself in a position whereby he unnecessarily impedes another driver. Here Car 77 was driving slowly on the Racing line and caused to the situation that ensued.

“However, during the hearing both team and 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. That was obviously an error on the team’s part and contributed significantly to the incident.”

Bottas’ grid drop only costs him two positions as he originally qualified 18th. The stewards did not issue any penalty points to him.

Bottas is unexpectedly working with a new race engineer this weekend after the team chose to replace Alex Chan, who filled the role until the last race. Although Bottas’ new engineer, Steven Petrik, gave him several warnings about traffic on several occasions earlier in the session, he failed to warn him about Piastri.

On Thursday the driver said he had no say in who the team appointed to the role and when.

“It was quite a sudden change,” said Bottas. “Obviously it’s a sprint weekend, so working with a fresh guy will be not easy, but obviously [we’re] trying to make the most out of it. He’s getting a lot of support but it’s quite a sudden change.”

The change has come about as part of Sauber’s transition into Audi, which will rebrand the team in 2026, said Bottas. “It’s part of the kind of reconstruction for the team. There’s some people leaving, some people joining. And obviously many of those decisions are not in my hands. I don’t do those decisions.”

Updated: 2024 Miami Grand Prix sprint race grid

This article will be updated.

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