MONZA, Italy (Reuters) – AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda will have a 10-place grid drop for Sunday’s Italian Formula One Grand Prix after the Japanese collected a string of reprimands.
Tsunoda picked up his fifth reprimand in 15 races at last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix for driving on track with his seat belts loosened.
Previous offences — in Australia, Bahrain and Monaco — were for driving unnecessarily slowly and hindering other drivers.
At the Dutch Grand Prix he had stopped on track thinking a wheel was loosely attached, undoing his seat belts in the expectation of having to get out of the car.
Instead, the Red Bull-owned team told him the car was safe to continue and he then drove back to the pits in an unsafe condition.
Under Formula One’s sporting regulations, receiving five reprimands — at least four of them for driving offences — during a season triggers an automatic grid drop.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)
