Piastri loses second place, Ferrari drivers move up the grid

Having qualified second on the grid for tomorrow's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri will lose his front row starting spot due to a grid drop penalty.

The Australian driver displayed eye-catching pace all through Saturday, setting the benchmark time in the distracted final practice session. The McLaren racer then went on to grab second place on the grid, having only fractionally been slower than pole-sitter Max Verstappen.

However, Piastri was investigated after qualifying for a possible impeding incident. The Melbourne-born driver allegedly impeeded Haas driver Kevin Magnussen in Q1, and the stewards came to the conclusion that Piastri was to blame for the incident.

In their verdict, the stewards noted that the impeding was down to a lack of communication between Piastri and his race engineer.

The Australian was ultimately given a three-place grid penalty which will see him drop down to P5 on the grid while his team-mate Lando Norris, Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will all move up the grid by a palce.

The stewards' statement read: "fact there was an approximately 140km/h speed differential and Magnussen was only approximately 40-50m behind at the time and this meant that Piastri was in the middle of the chicane when Magnussen caught up directly behind Piastri.

"Further, it was clear that Magnussen was on a fast lap since his exit of Turn 19.

"Traffic management for slower cars is an extremely important part of the team/driver combination, particularly in Q1. In this instance the stewards determine that the lack of sufficient warning caused an “unnecessary impeding