Valtteri Bottas has been disqualified from qualifying at the British Grand Prix, changing the starting order for Sunday's race.
The Alfa Romeo driver had reached Q2 before being forced to settle for 15th during the session. He fared better than his team-mate Zhou Guanyu, who was only 18th fastest in Q1.
However, after the session, FIA officials were unable to collect a fuel sample from the Finn's car. He and his team were swiftly summoned to explain themselves in front of the stewards.
The steward heard their case at a meeting in the paddock after Saturday's session. Shortly after, they published an official document confirming Bottas' disqualification from the qualifying classification.
Explaining the decision, the stewards wrote: "The car was unable to provide the required fuel sample. There were no mitigating circumstances."
Alfa Romeo made a request for Bottas to be allowed to start the race despite having his qualifying times scrubbed. Permission was granted, meaning he will start from the very back of the grid.
The small silver lining for the team is that Zhou's grid position improves to 17th as a result. Sergio Perez also rises by a place and will start 15th – the same position from where he drove to finish third last weekend in Austria.
AlphaTauri pair Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries also go up by one spot each and will start 16th and 18th respectively. Kevin Magnussen is the other driver to benefit and will no longer start from last place.
Speaking immediately after his disqualification was announced, Bottas said: "Obviously, not the result we wanted out of today. The positive thing is the pace is better and the car felt better. We made progress with the new package since yesterday to optimise it.
"So now we focus on tomorrow. It's unfortunate that the issue we had in qualifying meant we couldn't continue, but tomorrow is a new day and the day that the points are give, so we're going to go for it."
