Vettel gets grid drop, Bottas and Sainz cleared over slowing in Q2

Alonso was on his final flying lap in Q2 and appeared on course to progress into the top-10 shootout when he came across a slow-moving Vettel at the final corner.

The two-time world champion was subsequently eliminated in the second part of qualifying in 14th and was left furious, claiming Vettel’s unintentional block had effectively ruined the rest of his weekend.

Following an investigation, the stewards concluded that Vettel had caused Alonso to abort his last push lap.

“Alonso was on his fast lap just before the end of Q2,” they noted.

“When he approached the last two corners (nine and ten), there was still a queue of three cars preparing for their final qualifying lap. Vettel was the last car in this line and impeded Alonso and as a result, Alonso had to abort his final qualifying lap.”

Vettel, who has also had one penalty point added to his licence, will subsequently drop from eighth to 11th on the Austrian GP grid.

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz were also investigated for allegedly slowing unnecessarily in Q2, though both drivers were cleared of any wrongdoing by the stewards.

“At the end of Q2 Bottas slowed down at the entry of [turn nine] to create a gap for his final lap,” the stewards noted. “This is contrary to the race director’s event notes 24.2a.

“However, given the situation that many drivers ended up queuing at this part of the circuit, the stewards determine that too many drivers contributed to the situation and therefore the driver concerned is not fully to blame.”