Alex Albon and Lewis Hamilton kept the race management busy after qualifying in the Netherlands: the Williams driver was disqualified from the classification and the Mercedes driver received a three-place grid penalty after the session.

After a horror crash in the Williams pits that forced Logan Sargeant to miss qualifying, things were looking good for the number 23 side of the pits after Albon secured a Q3 entry in the tough session.

The Thai driver shone in the middle phase and, as expected by James Vowles, the team boss of Williams, made it into the top ten shootout.

But although Alex Albon qualified in P8, initially securing a place on row 4 alongside Fernando Alonso, he was given a painful penalty long after the chequered flag was waved.

The FW46 failed the technical inspection after qualifying because it was found that the floor body was “outside the prescribed volume as set out in Article 3.5.1 a) of the FIA ​​Formula 1 Technical Regulations”.

The floor is one of five new components that Williams brought to the Netherlands and that were installed in both cars before Sargeant’s heavy crash.

“The team did not contest the calibration of the FIA ​​measurement system and the measurement of the car, but stated that its own measurements led to different results,” the race stewards said in a statement.

“The Race Direction concludes that the result of the measurement carried out with the FIA ​​system in the Parc Fermé is the relevant one and that the correct procedure prescribed in the regulations was followed.”

“Therefore, the usual penalty for such an infringement will be imposed.”

Due to his exclusion from the classification, Albon will now start from the back of the grid at the Dutch Grand Prix together with his teammate.

The team issued a brief response on social media, saying:

“Unfortunately, Alex was disqualified from qualifying today because his underbody was outside the permissible volume set by the FIA.

“We are incredibly disappointed with this outcome and will conduct a thorough investigation and provide an update shortly.”

In a report to the FIA, the team previously described the upgrade as “part of a completely new floor geometry.”

“The height of the front floor will be increased and the fences will be re-profiled.

“The bottom edges have been updated with a more pronounced finger geometry.

“We have reprofiled the front of the bottom body and the local fence bends to provide local load improvement and also improve the inflow area of ​​the new bottom edge wing geometry.”

Lewis Hamilton received a three-place grid penalty after the session for impeding Sergio Perez in an incident at the start of the first qualifying session.

On a flying lap, Perez came across a slow-moving Mercedes in turn 9 and called the seven-time world champion an “idiot” over the radio, whereupon he had to abort his attempt.

That moment forced Perez to use two sets of soft tyres in the first 18-minute session, leaving the Red Bull driver angrily awaiting his run in Q2.

Hamilton was originally scheduled to start from P12, but due to his penalty he will now start from P14.

“The driver of Car 44, who was on an in-lap, was informed by the team that Car 11 was closing in on a fast lap as he entered Turn 8,” the race stewards confirmed.

“He then went off the track at the exit of Turn 8 with the intention of making way for car 11.

“However, when Car 11 arrived, Car 44 had already entered Turn 9 and was heading back towards the racing line at the exit of Turn 9, clearly impeding Car 11.

“The race directors conclude that although there was an appropriate warning from the team and the driver attempted to take evasive action, he could have braked harder to avoid impeding the other car. They therefore consider the obstruction to be unnecessary in terms of the regulations.

“Therefore, a grid drop will be carried out in accordance with the previous decisions.”

As for the drivers who benefit from these penalties, Carlos Sainz will now start in the top 10, boosted by the disqualification of his future teammate after a below-average session by the Ferrari driver.

Behind him is Yuki Tsunoda in 11th place, followed by Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen.

A small plus point for Daniel Ricciardo after a bad day: The Australian will inherit a position at the start of the Dutch Grand Prix and line up behind Hamilton in P15.

The traffic lights for the Dutch Grand Prix will be switched off at 23:00.

Image: Simon Galloway / LAT Images

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