Grosjean given three place penalty for impeding Norris

Romain Grosjean has been given a three-place grid penalty for impeding McLaren driver, Lando Norris during qualifying for the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix.

The French driver qualified in a provisional P8 following a strong session from Haas which saw Kevin Magnussen in sixth for tomorrow’s race. However, Grosjean will now start in 11th as he was handed a three-place penalty for holding up Norris during Q1.

A statement from the stewards read: “The driver of car eight [Grosjean] stated that he was about to commence a push lap when he was overtaken by car five [Sebastian Vettel] and thus slowed significantly to maintain a sufficient gap.

“He was not advised by the team of the rapid approach of car four [Norris], which was on a push lap. The speed differential was 136 km/h at the point where car four had to take avoiding action.”

Grosjean was given the benefit of the doubt as the stewards said: “Accept that the driver of car eight did not intentionally intend to impede, however it is the driver’s responsibility to be aware, when travelling abnormally slowly, that faster cars may be approaching.”

Grosjean will now start eleventh with Norris promoted to ninth after a strong session for the McLarens.