Piastri receives official verdict from stewards after rule breach at Monza

19:04, 05 Sep

Updated: 19:10, 05 Sep

byTobia Elia

The stewards have issued their verdict regarding the investigation into Oscar Piastri for an infringement committed by the McLaren driver during FP2 at the Italian Grand Prix.

The Australian came under the stewards’ scrutiny for entering the fast lane during a red flag period before the session’s restart had been confirmed.

However, after hearing the driver about the incident, Piastri was let off with just a reprimand.

Oscar Piastri

Full FIA explanation

''Car 81 was released from its garage at 17:13.50 whereas the re-start of the session was confirmed by Race Control on timing page 3 at 17:14.09, this clearly being in breach of item 22.2 of the Race Director's Event Notes,'' the official FIA statement reads.

''The team admitted during the hearing that they made a mistake as they reacted to the "track clear" message instead of reacting to the message indicating the re-start time of the session.''

''The Stewards acknowledge that, in contrast to prior incidents of similar nature happening in Qualifying, no significant sporting advantage could potentially be gained as this happened in Free Practice and therefore consider a reprimand to the competitor to be appropriate.''

After temporarily giving up his seat to Alex Dunne in the morning, Piastri returned behind the wheel of his MCL39 for FP2 in the afternoon, finishing the day in fourth place, while his teammate topped the timesheets ahead of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.