Zhou penalised for impeding Verstappen in Spa qualifying

Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu has been penalised for impeding Max Verstappen during Q1 for Formula 1’s 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, in an incident that enraged the Red Bull driver.

As the final third of qualifying’s first knockout session commenced, Verstappen was coming through Blanchimont on a flying lap when he came across Zhou going slowly on the racing line.

Verstappen backed off for a moment, then gestured towards the Sauber as he pressed on and passed by, with the Dutchman going on to top qualifying and Zhou finishing last in Q1.

Following a post-qualifying investigation, the Spa stewards handed Zhou a three-place grid drop as they felt although Sauber “informed the driver about Car 1 being behind him, the information given was not accurate enough” and said “it is the responsibility of the driver to not unnecessarily impede other drivers” – per the document announcing the decision.

“The stewards determine that Car 24 did unnecessarily impede Car 1 and therefore the standard penalty is applied,” the statement continued.

The stewards also stated that: “Car 24 stayed on the racing line through Turn 17 when Car 1 was closing in despite not going at full racing speed.

“Car 1 had to lift the throttle for a brief moment before passing Car 24.”

Zhou’s team radio reveals that he was told Verstappen was behind but “in phase” with the Chinese driver’s slower lap and so he continued to discuss possible set-up changes with his engineer and was unaware the Red Bull was catching up and going to pass, while Verstappen raged “Hello? What the f***?” after the incident.

While Verstappen will drop back from starting first and line up 11th due to his penalty for taking a new internal combustion engine element outside the allocation allowed in the rules, Zhou will still line up 19th.

This is one spot higher than where he qualified, because RB’s Yuki Tsunoda must start last due to taking an all-new engine for this race, with the resulting grid penalties adding up to 60 places.

In such farcical cases, F1 now mandates that the cars involved start last, so even though Zhou too has a grid penalty, he will line up ahead of Tsunoda.

Zhou’s infraction has not cost him any penalty points on his superlicence.