F1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli suffered a significant setback at the Hungarian Grand Prix after FIA stewards handed him a grid penalty.
The 19-year-old Mercedes driver had qualified in fourth place on Saturday, setting himself up for a strong race start from the second row at the Hungaroring.
However, the FIA launched an investigation into Antonelli after the qualifying session concluded, examining his behaviour under yellow flag conditions.
The yellow flags had been triggered by a late crash involving Max Verstappen, who spun his Red Bull right at the end of Q3.
Stewards determined that Antonelli had failed to slow down sufficiently at Turn 14 when passing Verstappen’s stationary vehicle during the incident.
As a result, Antonelli was handed a three-place grid drop penalty, pushing the Italian teenager back from fourth to seventh on the starting grid.
Ahead of Sunday’s race, Sky Sports F1 presenter Martin Brundle spoke with Antonelli’s race engineer Peter Bonnington, widely known in the paddock as Bono, during the pre-race gridwalk.
Brundle asked Bonnington directly whether he felt the three-place penalty was a fair call from the stewards, to which Bono gave a candid response.
“Nah, it’s a bit rough, but it is what it is,” said Bono, who has previously served as race engineer to both seven-time champions Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher.
When Brundle pressed further on whether other drivers had avoided similar penalties in the past, Bonnington confirmed that was part of the frustration.
Bono replied: “Exactly, you know how it is. It used to be the tiniest of lifts. Now it’s trying to work out your speed in the mini sector, which is a little bit complicated to do when the accidents happen just in front of you. So yeah, it’s a little bit tough.”
The FIA had already found themselves at the centre of controversy heading into the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, after admitting a mistake was made at the previous Belgian Grand Prix.
The governing body acknowledged that Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc should have been penalised for an incident that damaged Oscar Piastri’s McLaren in Spa, but the admission came too late for any action to be taken.
The combination of the Leclerc situation and the Antonelli penalty has placed FIA stewarding decisions firmly under the spotlight during one of the busiest stretches of the 2026 Formula 1 season.