Mercedes gets Antonelli's penalty overturned
Formula 1

Mercedes gets Antonelli's penalty overturned

by Jon Noble
1 min read

Mercedes has successfully overturned Kimi Antonelli's five-second penalty for an unsafe pitstop release that initially dropped the rookie from fourth to fifth in Formula 1's Australian Grand Prix.

Antonelli had made a strong charge up the field from 16th on the grid to run fourth at the end, but was given a sanction for an incident that happened during the late switch to intermediates.

The stewards deemed that Antonelli had been released into the path of Nico Hulkenberg – forcing the Sauber driver to brake and take avoiding action.

Antonelli's penalty originally dropped him to fifth, behind Williams driver Alex Albon who he had overtaken on the road near the end.

But with Mercedes unhappy at the penalty, it lodged a petition for a Right of Review with the stewards on Sunday evening.

While this required Mercedes to  provide "a significant and relevant new element" to the FIA for the hearing to take place, this threshold was passed as it submitted video from the rollhoop camera that had not been available before.

Following the stewards' evaluation of that camera, plus extra footage taken from a helicopter, they decided that Antonelli's release had not been unsafe.

A statement from the stewards said: "It is clear that Car 12 [Antonelli] did not cross into the fast lane until a significant distance down the pitlane and only after the driver checked his mirror to confirm clearance with Car 27 [Hulkenberg].

"The rollhoop camera shows that he had sufficient room to safely pass the McLaren pits without risk to the McLaren mechanics."

The FIA said that the evidence was enough for it to reverse its decision to give Antonelli a five-second penalty – meaning he will take fourth place for his F1 debut.

Albon will now move back to fifth place, where he had finished on the road.

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