A document released from the stewards’ hearing reads: “The team representative stated that he gave the instruction for the car to creep out but not be fully released.
“The driver misunderstood the instruction and entered the fast lane before the re-start time was officially confirmed in breach of the Race Director’s event notes. Once this was done, it was too late to reverse course and the team instructed the driver to proceed down the pit lane.
HIGHLIGHTS: Piastri pips Verstappen to pole at Imola as red flags disrupt Qualifying
“The team argued that there was no sporting advantage gained in this case as there was sufficient time remaining for other teams to perform their run plans as this was the start of the session. The team representative and the driver apologised for the inadvertent breach.
“The stewards consider that this breach was inadvertent but it did require a sporting penalty to be imposed. However as the breach was unintentional and this did not result in any sporting advantage, we decided to impose a one position grid penalty.
“A similar breach in different circumstances, could entail a more severe sporting penalty, in future.”
