Bottas gets penalty points & grid drop, others cleared

2014 Malaysian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Valtteri Bottas has become the first driver to be awarded penalty points on his licence after the stewards found he impeded Daniel Ricciardo during qualifying.

The stewards also handed him a three-placed grid penalty for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Bottas was given two penalty points which will remain on his licence for the next 12 months. If he reaches 12 points he will automatically be banned for one race.

The stewards ruled Bottas impeded Daniel Ricciardo during Q2 as “the driver did not pay attention to the approaching car and continued to impede car three through turns 14 and 15”.

An unhappy Ricciardo shouted “Get this [censored by FOM] Williams out of my way!” on his radio after being held up by Bottas.

It is the second grid penalty in as many races for the Williams driver, who was moved back on the grid due to a gearbox change in Australia. This one will drop him to 18th place on the grid.

However the stewards decided against penalising Fernando Alonso or Daniil Kvyat for their collision earlier in the session. “The stewards do not believe either driver were wholly or predominately to blame for the incident,” they ruled.

2014 Malaysian Grand Prix

Browse all 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix articles

Image © Williams/LAT

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

58 comments on “Bottas gets penalty points & grid drop, others cleared”

  1. Huh, I thought Bottas was on a flying lap? I mean you can defend if you are on a flyer no?

    If he was not then of course he deserved it.

    1. he was winding up to begin a hot lap.

  2. Is this referring to the incident at the last corner then, where the two were side by side? I have to say, I saw nothing in that particular part of the incident.

    1. @vettel1 Well it states “turn 14 and 15” and we (German TV) didn’t really see what happened in turn 14. I’m not sure if Bottas was on a quick lap but I don’t see why he wouldn’t have been. The Mercedes engine also moved him forward in a way the other car simply couldn’t so he would have gone past on the back straight anyway even if he had let him past in turn 14. Anyway I suppose the FIA looked into it and know more about the incident (or at least I hope so). For what was visible on TV I wouldn’t have done anything about it, same as the Alonso incident (although it wasn’t a good move by him but considering what Hamilton said later, it seems with the quieter engines it is harder to know where other cars are exactly when they are in the spray).

    2. “turns 14 and 15” Did you even read the article before posting? You’re only wasting our time as well as your own.

      It’s not very often you see Ricciardo upset so i knew there had to be more to it. Bottas needs to up his game before this season passes him by.

  3. Nooooo, this will totally spoil my Predictions Championship round. Finger crossed for a dry race.

    1. Me too, I had Bottas in P2 I think :P

  4. Does Vergne not get points on his licence for TWICE exceeding the pit lane speed limit?

    1. You only get monetary penalties for that apart from the race where you get stop and go for it @eurobrun

  5. Stewards doing their best to help Red Bull

    1. Ricciardo 5, Bottas 15

      I’m trying to see how giving a grid penalty to Bottas helps RBR

      1. if it was the other way round then Ricciardo 8 and Bottas 12

        1. If it was the other way around then Ricciardo 8 and Bottas 15

    2. This is why you don’t pay attention to what I like to call the “Sky Sports Sensationalists” @oletros.

    3. This is what I was saying yesterday. People see the words “Red Bull” or “Vettel” and immediately start coming up with conspiracy theories.

  6. No investigation on Rosberg then?

    Grosjean stated that he was impeded by him, and that overtake on Vettel looked rather dodgy, if you ask me…

    1. Which overtake on Vettel? Do you mean right at the end of Q3?

      1. Yes, the one that held up Vettel.

        1. Why would there be? Rosberg found Vettel dawdling at the last corner. Neither was on a flyer as far as I’m aware.

          1. no but it did mean that vettel couldnt cross the line in time to start his final lap. having said that it shouldnt have been penalised, it was vettels fault for leaving too big a gap and not paying attention to the cars behind him

          2. Exactly. He was taking so long that Rosberg didn’t have much choice unless he wanted to start his lap immediately next to or behind Vettel. Vettel over-reacted when he saw Rosberg pass him, like he forgot that he was leaving it tight as it was.

        2. Vettel backed off to be the last car on track

  7. So 2 points for holding up someone during qualy? So hitting someone off is 8 points right in the bag or..?

    1. Ridiculously harsh. 1 point at most, or none.

  8. Wow…. This is a really terrible start to the season for the 2nd most promising team, isn’t it?

    The car clearly doesn’t perform in the wet, and they’re being struck with bad luck left and right.

    I get the feeling we’ll be looking back at these first few races as a huge missed opportunity for Williams.

  9. Points on his license and a three place drop for impeding, whilst on a flying lap – and yet Kvyat crashes straight into the side of a Ferrari and no further action taken. With all the changes in 2014, it’s good to see that the stewards inconsistency is unchanged.

    1. @dot_com
      Alonso left a mile wide gap. Kvyat made use of it, got up along side and then Alonso turned in on him.
      Was he expecting the Torro Rosso to disappear into thin air? Of cause not. Because he didn’t see it.
      But Kvyat had every right to make an overtaking move like that.

      1. @mads Fernando for some inexplicable reasons went a bit deep in that corner. At the same time, Kvyat missed the braking point and so he took inside line hoping Fernando would go straight and not turn, which he was wrong to presume.

        1. @seahorse
          Alonso opened the door, Kvyat tried to go through it, until Alonso slammed it in his face. Hardly Kvyat’s fault if you ask me.
          I am fully aware though, that Alonso had little chance of seeing Kvyat, but ultimately Kvyat had every right to be in the position he was in when Alonso came crashing into him.

          1. @mads It’s not like the incident happened at corner 15 when Alonso aimed for the pit entry and all of a sudden closed the door on the poor little Kvyat. Fernando was taking a wide line while Kvyat is at fault for braking late; but it was better he dived inside and ended up without banging into the back of the Ferrari and damaging much of both the cars.

          2. @seahorse
            Why exactly did he brake too late? He made an overtaking move. That involves getting along side the other car at some point.

          3. @mads Why exactly did he overtake? He made a mistake by braking late. That would have involved pushing into the rear of the other car. He was fortunate Alonso was running wide and so he did not spoil the chances of both the drivers.

        2. @seahorse i believe alonso was on intermediates at the time. it was raining quite heavy at that point and he was taking a nice wide line for max grip simply to get around the corner (he was heading back to pits)

    2. Personally I think this is a great occasion of the stewards not giving out a completely unnecessary penalty for an unfortunate incident. I was sure that they were going to give Kvyat a penalty for not being a perfect driver, but apparently there is actually an equivalent of a “racing incident” before the race. Good news.

      1. @hey I agree – had it been the exact same incident in the dry then I would blame Alonso for turning in without looking but given the spray and conditions it’s not unreasonable that Alonso didn’t see the other car.

        Has there been any explanation why the red flag though – just to give Ferrari time to fix Alonso’s car?!

        1. More likely to allow the track to dry a little to reduce spray

        2. There were bits of wing lying on the racing line.

        3. There was chunks of shattered wing all over the track. Last thing they needed was punctures and flying razor-sharp shards of carbon fibre on top of everything else.

        4. There were a few bits of car left on the track at that turn – might have been to clear them?

  10. is it true that Bottas was on a flying lap, as everybody is saying? If so then the only way he deserves a penalty is if he purposefully moved to block Ricciardo by taking an atypical line.

    1. I’m pretty sure he was on an out lap, he’d been on inters when he was last shown before that whereas he was on full wets at the time. Tbh I figured he might get a penalty for that one unfortunately. Its difficult since he doesn’t want to start his new lap following right behind another car but he clearly did impede Ricciardo who was on a flyer (though I’m also pretty sure he was down on his best anyway and I don’t get why he was so upset)

  11. Congratulations to Bottas for making history.
    I hope Red Whining Cheating* Bull are proud of themselves.
    *subject to appeal

  12. From what I saw from the television, I think it is unfair to punish Bottas with both penalty points as well as grid drop for the so called impeding incident.

    1. I agree. It seems ludicrous to me to give Bottas a grid drop *and* penalty points given the “incident” had no impact on Ricciardo’s qualifying whatsoever.

  13. It didn’t look as much impeding on tv to be honest. They were side by side for a bit and Bottas was pulling away. And two points in licence for that? Wow, a bit harsh…

  14. So he had an entire track through final corners, but swears on radio to get a penalty for Bottas.
    What was shown on camera doesn’t justify it. Are there other feeds I haven’t seen?

    1. I’m sure he was smiling when he said it. He always is.
      If there were penalty points for Foul And Abusive Language, Red Bull would have scored their first points of the season – for both drivers.

  15. Still hate the new F1 sound, but i think i heard much more this time around. Maybe they did something or was it just me?

    1. @saddy The sound does seem a better representation as being at the track. It’s growing on me. What I do miss is hearing them exit the pits from the other side of the track. Now you only really hear them a few seconds before they pass.

  16. For me it is absolutely pathetic for him to be penalised. Tere was nothing worth penalising.

  17. Maybe it’s just me, but penalty points on the licence AND a grid drop seems both overly harsh and a bit stupid, frankly. One or t’other, maybe…

    1. I think the idea is the same as driving license points. You get fined, and points on you license, to punish repeating offenders even harder.

  18. I read that whole article – where’s this ‘arrogance’ you speak of?

    1. Don’t try to reason. It’s Red Bull, people will find ways to criticize.

  19. An unhappy Ricciardo shouted “Get this [censored by FOM] Williams out of my way!” on his radio after being held up by Bottas.

    Happy, smiley Ricciardo seems to be fitting in nicely at RBR…;)

Comments are closed.