FIA hands out two post-race penalties in Canada: Bottas punished for driving 0.1 km/h over the pit lane limit

The stewards wasted little time after the chequered flag. Both documents landed just before 20:00 local time, confirming penalties for two drivers who fell foul of the regulations in very different ways during the afternoon's racing.

The more eye-catching of the two is the penalty handed to Valtteri Bottas. The Cadillac driver was recorded travelling through the pit lane at 80.1 km/h at 16:50 during the race. The speed limit in the pit lane at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for this event was set at 80 km/h. That is an excess of precisely one tenth of a kilometre per hour — and in the eyes of the stewards, a breach is a breach. Bottas receives a five-second time penalty for a violation of Article B1.6.3a of the FIA F1 Regulations.

There is no tolerance built into the regulation. The data was clear, the limit was clear, and the outcome followed automatically. Bottas has the right to appeal, but with timing evidence this unambiguous, overturning the decision would be extremely unlikely.

The second penalty involves the opposite problem. Gabriel Bortoleto, driving for the Audi Revolut F1 Team, exceeded the VSC delta time in multiple mini-sectors during a Virtual Safety Car deployment. That means he was travelling below the minimum prescribed pace — paradoxically earning a penalty for going too slowly. The stewards reviewed positioning and marshalling system data alongside timing evidence, which clearly showed a breach of Article B1.8.5 of the FIA F1 Regulations. Bortoleto also receives five seconds.

For both drivers, it has no effect on the final result of the Canadian Grand Prix. Bortoleto remains classified in thirteenth place, just as Bottas still leaves empty-handed from his sixteenth-place finish.