Grosjean handed three-place grid drop for Norris block

Romain Grosjean has been hit with a three-place grid penalty for impeding Lando Norris during Formula 1 qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix. 

McLaren’s Norris was coming to the end of his first flying lap in Q1 when he met a slow Grosjean at the final corner. 

The Haas driver failed to get out of the way sufficiently and subsequently held up Norris, earning him a three-place grid drop in Bahrain. 

“The driver of car eight [Grosjean] stated that he was about to commence a push lap when he was overtaken by car five [Sebastian Vettel] and thus slowed significantly to maintain a sufficient gap,” an FIA statement read. 

“He was not advised by the team of the rapid approach of car four [Norris], which was on a push lap. The speed differential was 136 km/h at the point where car four had to take avoiding action.

“The stewards accept that the driver of car 8 did not intentionally intend to impede, however it is the driver’s responsibility to be aware, when travelling abnormally slowly, that faster cars may be approaching.”

Grosjean, who qualified eighth on the grid, will now start from 11th, moving Kimi Raikkonen up to eighth, Norris up to ninth and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo inside the top ten. 

The Frenchman also picked up a penalty point for his actions, meaning he has moved on to eight for the current 12-month period and is just four away from a potential race ban.