The FIA has confirmed that Lewis Hamilton will start fourth on the grid for the Austrian Grand Prix as a result of his penalty for impeding Kimi Raikkonen in qualifying.
Hamilton had qualified second behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the Red Bull Ring, but was given a three-place grid drop for the incident with Raikkonen, which happened early in Q1.
It had been suggested that Hamilton would therefore start fifth, but with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen taking a five-place penalty for fitting a replacement gearbox, the Mercedes driver will start fourth due to the way the FIA applies grid penalties.
It means that Hamilton will join his team-mate Valtteri Bottas behind front row starters Leclerc and Max Verstappen, with McLaren’s Lando Norris starting fifth.
The provisional grid released by the FIA includes Nico Hulkenberg’s penalty for taking a new V6 engine, George Russell’s penalty for impeding Daniil Kvyat and the back of the grid power unit penalties for Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz.
Hulkenberg will start 15th for Renault, with Williams driver Russell starting 18th.
Albon and Sainz will start last in 19th and 20th.
The original provisional grid issued by the FIA listed the two back of the grid starters as Sainz in 19th, and Albon in 20th.
But they were subsequently swapped with a new document.
This a result of a new rule that was introduced for 2019, which specifies that priority goes to the driver that sets the quicker qualifying time.
In the past it was the first driver to take to the track and use the new power unit elements.
This was done to encourage penalised drivers to run in qualifying, while also stopping potential traffic jams at the end of the pitlane before a session began.