Nico Hulkenberg has fallen to 19th place in the sprint race results at the Red Bull Ring after the stewards handed him a 10-second penalty.
Hulkenberg finished in 14th place having started 17th, but was deemed to have forced Fernando Alonso off the track at turn three.
The pair had been battling over 14th place on lap 21 when the Haas driver attempted a move up the inside of the slowest turn on the track. Hulkenberg ran deep into the corner, which pushed Alonso out wide with the Aston Martin eventually running off the track. Alonso then lost a second position to Daniel Ricciardo as a result, eventually finishing down in 16th place.
Speaking to race engineer Chris Cronin on team radio after the move, Alonso described Hulkenberg’s pass as a “very optimistic move,” adding he “missed the corner.”
The stewards announced the incident would be investigated after the race. They eventually decided that Hulkenberg had forced the Aston Martin off track illegally.
“The driver of car 27 [Hulkenberg] attempted an overtake on car 14 into turn three but locked up and missed the apex,” explained the stewards. “[Hulkenberg] understeered to the very edge of the track, thereby preventing car 14 from turning in and forcing the other driver off track.”
As a result of his infraction, Hulkenberg was handed a 10-second time penalty. That dropped him from 14th in the provisional results down to 19th, ahead only of Zhou Guanyu
The stewards also handed Hulkenberg two penalty points for the incident, his first penalty points on his superlicence over the last 12 months. Hulkenberg’s Haas team mate, Kevin Magnussen is currently the closest driver in the field to receiving a one-race suspension for reaching 12 penalty points, currently having ten.
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