The result of the Austrian Grand Prix has changed after the Formula 1 stewards handed out a swathe of fresh penalties hours after the conclusion of the race.
Max Verstappen won the race on track, even stopping with two laps to go for fresh tyres to set the fastest lap. He finished ahead of Charles Leclerc in second while Sergio Perez piloted the other Red Bull car from 15th on the grid to third.
But that was not the end of the matter. Shortly after the conclusion of the race, it was announced that Aston Martin had lodged an official protest.
It emerged that the stewards' policing system for track limits violations had been overwhelmed during the race. Half the grid was penalised for repeat offences, but it turned out that there should have been many more such sanctions handed out.
Aston Martin's protest was upheld and the stewards were tasked with poring over more than 1,200 separate incidents where drivers may have gone outside the white lines during the race.
That process took hours, but the final classification has now finally been announced after 83 further lap times were deleted. 12 time penalties were handed out in total, though none of them affected the top three.
One of those to get a fresh penalty was Lewis Hamilton, who had 10 seconds added to his race time. That meant he dropped a place in the final standings. His Mercedes team-mate George Russell moves up to seventh place as a result.
Carlos Sainz is the biggest loser thanks to a fresh 10 second time penalty. That drops him from fourth place to sixth, losing four world championship points as a result, with Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso benefitting.
Pierre Gasly received the only other penalty which affects the points positions. His extra 10 seconds means Lance Stroll leapfrogs him into ninth place and the Alpine man loses a point.
Elsewhere, Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant received one new 10 second penalty each while Yuki Tsunoda had five second added to his time. Nyck de Vries was given two post-race penalties for a total of 15 additional seconds.
The other four penalties were all given to Esteban Ocon, totally a whopping extra 30 seconds on top of his race time. It will make no difference to the championship, though, as he finished outside the points on track anyway.
The FIA released a statement in which it explained the "unprecedented" scenario. And the stewards published a document of their own in which it explained why Aston Martin's protest was upheld.
It read: "The protest was lodged against the accuracy of the Provisional Classification. The Stewards first considered if the protest was admissible. The Stewards determined that as it was lodged on time and complied with the requirements of Chapter 13 of the FIA International Sporting Code, it was an admissible protest.
"An examination of the list of deleted lap times provided to the Stewards by Race Control, revealed that a number of track limit infringements had not previously been referred to the Stewards for potential penalty. It was determined that some of these infringements warranted a penalty that was not previously applied when the Provisional Classification was published.
"These penalties will be reflected in the Final Classification. Accordingly, the Protest is upheld and the Protest Fee is returned to the Competitor."
2023 Austrian Grand Prix result after penalties applied
- Max Verstappen – Red Bull
- Charles Leclerc – Ferrari
- Sergio Perez – Red Bull
- Lando Norris – McLaren
- Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin
- Carlos Sainz – Ferrari*
- George Russell – Mercedes
- Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes*
- Lance Stroll – Aston Martin
- Pierre Gasly – Alpine*
- Alexander Albon – Williams*
- Zhou Guanyu – Alfa Romeo
- Logan Sargeant – Williams*
- Esteban Ocon – Alpine*
- Valtteri Bottas – Alfa Romeo
- Oscar Piastri – McLaren
- Nyck de Vries – AlphaTauri*
- Kevin Magnussen – Haas
- Yuki Tsunoda – AlphaTauri*
DNF: Nico Hulkenberg
*Denotes penalty was given after the race
