Sergio Perez has been sent tumbling down the grid for Saturday's Sprint Race at the Austrian Grand Prix after falling foul of the stewards in qualifying.
The Mexican finished a dramatic session in P4, with teammate Max Verstappen on pole. Sandwiched between the two Red Bull drivers were the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
But Q3 was plagued by chaos after Lewis Hamilton crashed his Mercedes on his opening lap, meaning a red flag whilst his W13 car was rescued and a barrier repaired. Moments later, his partner George Russell also careered off the track to complete a disastrous finale for the Silver Arrows.
But the drama wasn't done there, with Perez then summoned to the stewards after appearing to breach track limits on his final lap in Q2. The incident was noted by officials at the time, with the Mexican aware his starting position for the Saturday Sprint Race was subject to an investigation.
Sure enough, he was deemed to have impeded and will now drop down to P13 having had that lap, and also all of his Q3 lap times, deleted. "Perez left the track at Turn 8 on his last flying lap of Q2, just prior to the end of the session," the report from the stewards read.
"As this was not identified until the moment before Q3 started, the lap was not deleted prior to the start of Q3 and Perez started Q3. This is a consequence of having many situations to examine in each session. The video was clear and there is no doubt of the breach, which the team admitted."
Despite Red Bull personnel seemingly trying to argue a case for Perez, who lies second in the championship standings behind Verstappen, but stewards insisted that regulations had been broken. "The team made the point that leaving the track at this point is not a clear advantage and brought data to support that point," they added.
"However, the stewards considered that this was not a case of 'gaining a lasting advantage”' but rather is 'leaving the track without a justifiable reason', which is another part of the same rule and which is the section that is being applied to qualifying sessions."
Usually, Perez would only have had a single lap time deleted. However, because the lap in question allowed him to progress from Q2 to Q3, any subsequent efforts were also considered invalid.
He wasn't the only driver in hot water though, with Russell also investigated for his conduct following his crash. The British driver, without permission, appeared to cross the track on foot and entered the pit lane at a section where no speed restrictions were in place.
However, he escaped with a warning and, following the demotion of Perez, will start the Sprint Race in P4. Hamilton meanwhile, is elevated one place into P9.
The mechanics of both drivers face a long night on Friday, though, with repairs needed to both W13 models. At the time of the crash, Hamilton was running third and in serious contention for a place on the front row.
