Formula 1: Haas F1 team driver Nico Hulkenberg penalised with grid penalty

Montreal [Canada], June 18 : Ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, Haas F1 team driver Nico Hulkenberg faces a three-place grid penalty. After qualifying, Nico Hulkenberg was to start in the second position but the stewards found him guilty of committing a violation under the red flag. Thus, he faced three gird penalty which forced him down to start in the fifth position.

The Canadian Grand Prix will be held on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

Following a potential red flag breach, the stewards decided to give the Haas driver a three-place drop, demoting him from second to fifth - giving spots to Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in the process.

According to the official website of Formula 1, the steward's report said, "The driver had just finished his fastest lap and had started another push lap, he was at T1 when the red flag was displayed, however at that point he was already 1.5 seconds over his delta time."

The report further stated, "He (Nico Hulkenberg) claimed this made it extremely difficult for him to come below the delta in the next sector. He also admitted to confusion about the beep signal in his headset, and therefore at one stage thought he was going too slow," according to the official website of Formula 1.

Speaking before the investigation and penalty announcement, Hulkenberg hailed Haas's efforts, saying: "We made it work. We were on the right tyres at the right moment, and the timing was good today, also in Q3 [with] the red flag, that kind of was lucky for us because I'd just finished my second lap which put me in P2 because I think before I was pretty much not anywhere.

While concluding, Nico Hulkenberg said "But yeah, a clean qualification. It's challenging, it's tough here. With inters it's sketchy, a lot of the exits are pretty quick already considering it's wet, and then you've got all these concrete walls around, so it's not been easy, but I enjoyed it, it was good fun."