Haas driver Nikita Mazepin has been penalised three grid locations on the Spanish Grand Prix for impeding Lando Norris throughout qualifying — a penalty that can don’t have any impression on his grid place as he was attributable to begin final anyway.

Mazepin held up Norris via the ultimate three corners of the lap in the course of the first qualifying session, costing the McLaren driver time and forcing him to run once more to make sure he made the reduce for the second a part of qualifying.

The scenario was sophisticated by the presence of Kimi Raikkonen and Yuki Tsunoda in entrance of Mazepin, however the stewards believed the Haas driver may have queued behind Raikkonen and Tsunoda, waited for Norris to go after which began his personal lap behind the McLaren.

The block had the knock-on impact of forcing Norris to make use of an additional set of recent tyres in Q1 to set a quicker time, that means he solely had one set of contemporary gentle tyres when he made it to the top-ten shootout on the finish of the session.

Mazepin, who certified 0.6s off the tempo in the back of the grid, was attributable to begin final anyway, however the three-place grid penalty additionally got here with a single penalty level on his superlicence, bringing his complete to 2 factors from 4 races. Amassing 12 penalty factors throughout a rolling 12-month interval would end in a race ban.

The stewards acknowledged Mazepin was in a tough place, however issued the next reasoning for the penalty.

“Throughout the Q1 session, Mazepin was organising for a quick lap,” the stewards’ ruling stated. “As he approached turns 10 and 11 Mazepin was knowledgeable that Norris was closing on a quick lap behind him and was knowledgeable of the closing hole all over to the incident. Mazepin then slowed to keep up the hole to [Mick] Schumacher forward of him with each organising for his or her quick laps.

“Between flip 13 and 14, Raikkonen and Tsunoda, who had been coming into the pits, jumped forward of Mazepin. Each automobiles had additionally been knowledgeable of the quick closing Norris, and it’s clear that they did this to get out of Norris’ manner. Nevertheless, this created a tough scenario for Mazepin.

“The stewards decided that having been clearly knowledgeable of Norris’ whereabouts, Mazepin’s determination to tug out and re-pass Raikkonen and Tsunoda clearly impeded Norris, who misplaced vital time.

“The stewards acknowledge that this sequence of corners creates a particular problem to the drivers in qualifying and that Mazepin was confronted with a tough scenario. This was additionally identified by Norris within the listening to.

“Nevertheless, had Mazepin waited for Norris to go, he may have pulled out and adopted Norris and the stewards decided this chance was accessible to him with out considerably compromising his subsequent lap.

“The stewards due to this fact order the same old penalty for “pointless impeding” of a 3 grid place drop and a single penalty level.”

Talking earlier than the ruling was handed down, Mazepin instructed media: “It is very tough when two automobiles overtake you going into the final chicane, which could be very gradual and tight, the place a size of the automobile, which is 2.5 metres, means you can not put a 3rd automobile there, particularly if the fourth automobile is arriving at full pace.

“So I did not really feel like boxing up behind was an possibility as a result of that will have left my rear finish on the racing line and the one possibility was to go, which I did, and sadly all these items got here collectively.

“I am not upset about it, as a result of there may be actually not a lot I may have finished other than disappear, which sadly I’m not but in a position to do.”