Oscar Piastri has lost his front row starting position at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix after a three-place grid penalty for impeding another driver during qualifying.

Piastri was one of Saturday’s star performers, finishing just 0.07s behind world champion Max Verstappen.

However, he will now start fifth after he was found to have blocked Kevin Magnussen during Q1.

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The penalty promotes Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris, the winner of the Miami Grand Prix two weeks ago, up to second on the grid alongside Verstappen, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc moving to P3 and Carlos Sainz on the second row.

The stewards said: “Piastri was exiting the pits and Magnussen was on his fast lap. Piastri impeded Magnussen at the chicane at Turns Two and Three.

“The Stewards accepted the explanation of Piastri that because of the layout of the circuit at that location, he could not see Magnussen until it was too late, at which time he tried to accelerate away in order to get clear of Magnussen as quickly as possible.

“Magnussen acknowledged that it was difficult for drivers to see cars behind in many portions of the track, including here. However, the Stewards reviewed the team radio and Piastri’s team did not warn him of the much faster approaching car until Magnussen was too close for Piastri to do anything to safely avoid impeding.

“In fact, there was an approximately 140km/h speed differential and Magnussen was only approximately 40-50m behind at the time and this meant that Piastri was in the middle of the chicane when Magnussen caught up directly behind Piastri. Further, it was clear that Magnussen was on a fast lap since his exit of Turn 19.”

The stewards report went on to say: “In this instance the Stewards determine that the lack of sufficient warning caused an ‘unnecessary impeding’.”