Kimi Antonelli learns his fate from the stewards after the incident with Norris

The Chinese Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying session almost cost Kimi Antonelli dearly. Having set the second fastest time behind his teammate George Russell at the Shanghai circuit, the Italian nevertheless saw his result placed under investigation by the stewards of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile.

At issue: an incident that occurred during SQ2 with Lando Norris. As the McLaren driver arrived at high speed into the first corner to start a fast lap, Antonelli was on the racing line after exiting the pits. The Briton had to change his line and abandon his attempt.

Even though both drivers eventually managed to reach SQ3, race control decided to open an investigation to determine if Antonelli had indeed unnecessarily impeded Norris.

Norris forced to abandon his lap

The situation seemed, at first glance, to correspond to a classic case of obstruction in qualifying. Norris was arriving quickly behind the Mercedes, which was driving at reduced speed on the ideal line.

The McLaren driver therefore had to lift off and give up on this lap, preferring to go again for another attempt to secure his qualification for the final phase of the session.

Despite this incident, Norris still managed to reach SQ3, while Antonelli set a fast enough lap to place himself just behind Russell on the timesheet.

This situation left significant uncertainty hanging over the sprint grid, with a penalty potentially dropping the young Italian back several places.

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Stewards decide not to penalize

After studying the footage and hearing from both drivers, the stewards finally decided not to impose a penalty on Antonelli. In their official decision, they explain that Norris was not actually attempting a timed lap when the incident occurred.

“The driver of car 1 explained to us that he was on a fast preparation lap and not on a flying lap. In other words, he was not actively attempting to set a representative time when car 12 exited the pits to join the track.”

According to their analysis, the situation would have been different if Norris had actually been in the middle of an attempt: “If car 1 had been on a fast lap, then, given the position of car 12 on the track, it would have unnecessarily impeded car 1.”

But the McLaren driver’s statements weighed heavily in the final decision: “Given the very clear position of the driver of car 1, who indicated that he had not been impeded since he was not looking to set a significant time, we have decided to take no further action.”

Antonelli keeps his front row

Thanks to this decision, Antonelli therefore retains his second place on the sprint grid behind Russell. An excellent opportunity for the young Mercedes driver to confirm his impressive performances since the start of the season.

At the Shanghai circuit, Mercedes thus finds itself in an ideal position with a fully locked-out front row, while McLaren and Ferrari will try to disrupt their dominance during the sprint race.

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