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Using the rainy circumstances to his advantage, Nico Hulkenberg qualified unexpectedly second in Saturday's grid-determining practice, putting him between Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who took the pole position, and Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin.
He was later looked into for a possible red flag violation, and after their investigation, the stewards opted to demote the Haas driver by three positions, dropping him from second to fifth and assigning those positions to Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, and George Russell.
The stewards said in a statement, “The driver had just finished his fastest lap and had started another push lap,” giving a penalty to Hulkenberg. “He was at T1 when the red flag was displayed, however at that point he was already 1.5 seconds over his delta time”, it further read.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was also handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Gasly. As a result, he will start the race 11th on the grid, bumping up Oscar Piastri, Alex Albon and teammate Charles Leclerc.
