Antonelli regains fourth place after stewards cancel penalty · RaceFans

Andrea Kimi Antonelli has regained fourth place in the Australian Grand Prix after the stewards cancelled his five-second time penalty.

Mercedes formally petitioned the stewards to reconsider their decision to hand him a five-second time penalty for an alleged ‘unsafe release’ incident in the pits.

The team submitted new evidence from the roll hoop mounted camera of Antonelli’s car. The stewards, who had been unable to examine the evidence when they made their original decision, agreed it showed Antonelli had moved into the fast lane of the pits safely.

They therefore cancelled the five-second time penalty which dropped him from fourth place to fifth in the original classification of the race. Alexander Albon, who originally moved up to fourth, therefore falls back to fifth.

The stewards originally ruled Mercedes released Antonelli from his pit box unsafely during the race, into the path of Nico Hulkenberg. The Sauber driver “had to brake and take avoiding action,” they noted.

However less than an hour after the end of the race, the stewards confirmed Mercedes had submitted the paperwork requesting them to review the decision. Representative of Mercedes and Sauber were summoned to a meeting of the stewards.

“The petitioner provided video from the roll hoop camera which was previously unavailable,” the stewards explained. “This video was relevant and significant in the opinion of the stewards and was unavailable at the time of the original decision (having only been downloaded from the Formula 1 camera post-race).”

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The video proved that although Hulkenberg reacted to Antonelli emerging in front of him, he had enough room to avoid the Mercedes.

“It is clear that car 12 [Antonelli] did not cross into the fast lane until a significant distance down the pit lane and only after the driver checked his mirror to confirm clearance with car 27 [Hulkenberg]. The roll hoop camera shows that he had sufficient room to safely pass the McLaren pits without risk to the McLaren mechanics.”

“Having examined the new video, plus additional video previously not available to the stewards and taken from the helicopter, the stewards decide to reverse the previous decision. As a result the penalty on car 12 in document number 43 is removed and no further action is required.”

This is the second time this weekend the Right of Review has been used to change a decision made by the stewards. The FIA itself request a review of a decision in a supporting Formula 3 race, which the stewards upheld, leading to another driver’s penalty being cancelled.

This article will be updated