Back to the Auto Racing Newsfeed

Why Hamilton starts P4, not P5, at the Austrian Grand Prix

SPIELBERG, Austria -- 2+3 usually equals 5, but once penalties are applied Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix from fourth on the grid when many assumed he would be fifth.

Hamilton was issued a three-place grid penalty for impeding Kimi Raikkonen in Q1 on Saturday, an incident he accepted full blame for. He had finished second in the session itself, but in the hours after qualifying there was confusion over where he would start -- Mercedes initially believed it was fifth, the FIA later confirmed it was fourth when the provisional grid was issued several hours later.