Perez loses his fourth place in qualifying

At first glance this should sound normal, as policing track limits is standard practice by the stewards during races and qualifying, and indeed numerous lap times were deleted over the course of the Friday session for numerous drivers.

But the strange thing is that the track limit violation that Perez was penalized took place on his final flying lap in Q2 after which he progressed into Q3 finishing it fourth fastest.

However, the Red Bull driver was called to see the stewards after the qualifying was over, after which it was decided that all his laps from Q3 will be deleted, as well as his final lap from Q2 - during which the violation took place - and as such he will start the Sprint Race on Saturday from 13th on the grid.

The FIA said in their document 27, dated July 8, 2022: "Perez left the track at Turn 8 on his last flying lap of Q2, just prior to the end of the session.

"As this was not identified until the moment before Q3 started, the lap was not deleted prior to the start of Q3 and Perez started Q3," they added.

The stewards then justified their lack of timely action saying: "This is a consequence of having many situations to examine in each session. The video was clear and there is no doubt of the breach, which the team admitted."

Red Bull tried to argue that Perez did not gain any advantage from his track breach as per the FIA document that stated: "The team made the point that leaving the track at this point is not a clear advantage and brought data to support that point.

"However, the stewards considered that this was not a case of 'gaining a lasting advantage', but rather is 'leaving the track without a justifiable reason', which is another part of the same rule and which is the section that is being applied to qualifying sessions," the stewards explained.

Sergio Perez said: "It is disappointing to lose fourth place, the track limits are very tight here this season, but it is frustrating that the Team weren’t told my lap time had been deleted during Q2.

"We have the Sprint tomorrow to make up ground and a long race ahead, we have to keep our head down and push hard to make progress and put us in a good position for Sunday," he added.

Christian Horner added: "We feel the penalty for Checo was very harsh and should have been dealt with before Q3 to enable us to improve subsequent performance.

"He will do his best tomorrow from P13 and try and put us into a better position for Sunday’s race," he concluded.

Perez's drop now means that George Russell will start the Sprint Race from fourth on the grid despite his crash.