But after the session it emerged that Perez appeared to have breached the track limits on the final lap as well, prompting a stewards’ investigation. Perez qualified fourth for Red Bull but will now drop to 13th on the grid after he was found to have exceeded the track limits in his Q2 lap, resulting in all Q3 times being deleted and the best lap time in Q2 being deleted . The marshals admitted it was “not recognized until the moment before Q3 started” meaning it was involved in Q3 because there were “many situations to consider in each session”. It also accepted the situation where a driver advances to a qualifying round only to later be found to have breached track limits ‘doesn’t happen regularly and certainly not recently’, leading to it being investigated as a ‘new situation’. “The team pointed out that they took both a risk and spent resources to compete in Q3,” the FIA statement said. “The judges accept this point. However, when assessing a penalty after a session, this is no different to any other situation. “The usual penalty is to delete the relevant lap time and the stewards are ordering the same penalty here. “However, as a consequence the driver would not have progressed to Q3 and therefore, in fairness to all other competitors, the stewards order that all Q3 lap times for the driver be deleted.” Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18 Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images The report also confirms that the said Q2 lap by Perez was also deleted, meaning his revised fastest time drops him to 13th in the standings. Perez’s penalty will move Mercedes’ George Russell to the second row of the grid, starting fourth behind Max Verstappen and Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. One of the biggest losers from failing to clear Perez’s lap immediately was AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, who dropped to 11th in Q2 after finishing 0.014s off Mick Schumacher’s time in 10th. Stewards also confirmed that Mercedes driver Russell had been given a caution for trespassing when he crossed the track on foot after crashing in Q3.
