Kimi Antonelli reprimanded after braking in front of Lance Stroll during Barcelona FP3
NXTbets Pro | Published On: June 15, 2026
Antonelli reprimand upheld
FIA stewards reprimanded Kimi Antonelli for erratic driving during final practice at the Barcelona Grand Prix. The stewards said Antonelli breached the FIA International Sporting Code after he braked in front of Lance Stroll while dealing with slower traffic. They reviewed video, telemetry and in‑car footage before issuing the formal warning. Antonelli said his reaction came from frustration and apologized for the incident. The reprimand is his first of the season. The panel imposed no additional penalty beyond the formal warning. Stewards noted the wider disciplinary framework in their decision. Drivers who accumulate five reprimands in a season receive an automatic 10-place grid penalty at the next race, a rule the stewards cited as the threshold for escalated sanctions. The finding and the warning were presented as the proportionate response to on-track conduct that merited official censure but did not, in the stewards’ view, require suspension or a grid drop on this occasion.
Track-limits penalty confusion
Stewards also determined Antonelli should have received a five-second time penalty for track-limits breaches that occurred before his final pit stop in the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. Officials recorded four separate track-limits violations by Antonelli. His engineer warned him after the third breach, but one of the violations was not identified until later in the race. Because Antonelli retired from the race, he will not serve the five-second penalty on his finishing time. The stewards pointed to existing FIA rules that say this type of five-second penalty is not converted into a grid penalty for the next race. That rule left the reprimand as the only active sanction tied to the practice incident, and it removed an automatic competitive consequence that might otherwise have affected starting order at the following event.
FIA review urged and Stroll fine noted
The stewards urged the FIA to review its procedures and guidelines to avoid similar confusion in the future, calling for clearer application of how track-limits breaches are identified and how penalties are applied when a driver retires. The recommendation tied directly to the sequence of events in Barcelona, where late identification of a breach and the interplay between practice incidents and race penalties created uncertainty about appropriate follow-up. Separately, Lance Stroll was fined €600 on behalf of Aston Martin for speeding in the pit lane. Officials recorded Stroll traveling at 85.9 km/h in the pit lane, and they imposed the monetary sanction independently of the reprimand issued to Antonelli. The stewards’ package therefore combined a formal warning for erratic driving, a finding about unserved track-limits time penalties, a call for procedural clarification, and a separate pit-lane fine for a different driver.
