Lando Norris was told by Spanish driver, Fernando Alonso, that he had secured a fourth-place grid spot in the Austrian GP, having finished in fifth on the track.
His former teammate and Ferrari racer, Carlos Sainz, received a post-race 10-second penalty for breaching track limits, causing Norris to overtake him in the rankings.
Sainz was one of eight drivers on the day to receive post-race penalties, five hours after the Austrian GP had ended.
The British-Belgian driver had already touched down in the UK when he received the good news from Alonso via text.
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He said his first text from Alonso read “busted,” and after that: “He told me to read what was happening and who we thought was going to get penalties and so on.
“So I actually found out as soon as I landed back in the UK, which is a nice thing. The easiest position gain of my life.”
Norris narrowly escaped being hit with penalties himself, exceeding track limits on three occasions – but he was met only with a black and white flag.
The British driver said he knew that if Sainz did receive a penalty he would benefit, with the gap between their finishes being under 10 seconds.
Even a five-second penalty for Sainz would have pushed Norris marginally ahead.
“I think there was always that anticipation that if I had one [a penalty], Fernando would have got me. So I had to keep pushing.
“And at the same time, I knew if Carlos made a mistake, then there was a chance that I could get his position.
“I kind of fought as if something might have happened.
“My engineers were telling me enough about it. It was a pleasant surprise and more points for the whole team which was perfect.”
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There was an anxious wait on Sunday night for some of the drivers, with stewards announcing they were looking into 1,200 incidents of possible track limits violations.
Of all the racers, only George Russell and Zhou Guanyu received no penalties at all.
In Russell’s case, this allowed him to overtake teammate Lewis Hamilton for seventh place.