Oscar Piastri left the stewards unimpressed as he failed to follow clear instructions laid out by the race director at the Australian Grand Prix.
The 21-year-old is racing at Albert Park for the first time in Formula 1 and is the home hero in the absence of Daniel Ricciardo from the grid. He will be desperate to score his first points for McLaren in front of his home crowd.
To have the best chance of doing that, Piastri would be best served by staying in the FIA stewards' good books. So it does not bode well that he has already been closely scrutinised by them after the third and final practice session of the weekend on Saturday morning.
At the conclusion of a practice session, drivers are generally allowed to complete an extra lap in order to line up on the grid and practice their launch procedure. It's valuable for the drivers to go through the motions to help boost their chances of getting a good start in Sunday's race.
The race director made it clear that the drivers have to go to the furthest forwards available grid slot in order to do this. The grid was clear when Piastri approached but, instead of filling the pole position slot which was available, he lined up in what would be third place. He also did it a lap too early, which the stewards felt could have been dangerous.
In line with similar offences in the past, Piastri escaped punishment for failing to follow that instruction. But it was made clear to the Aussie racer that he is on thin ice this weekend, and he will do well to avoid any further rule-breaking.
In an official FIA document, the stewards wrote: "The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 81 [Piastri], the team representative and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence and determined that there was a failure to follow item 17.3 of the Race Director’s Event Notes in relation to Practice Starts.
"The driver admitted that he had lost concentration and was preparing to do a practice start but attempted it a lap too early, having failed to take the chequered flag before doing so.
"After he slowed down considerably, the team warned him to complete the lap before attempting a practice start and therefore he did not go through the full practice start procedure. The driver candidly admitted his mistake and recognised that this could have resulted in a dangerous situation on the track.
"In accordance with previous precedents for similar infringements, we imposed a reprimand on him."
If a driver collects three reprimands in a season, F1 rules state they will be slapped with a 10-place grid penalty.
