Perez handed penalty for Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Qualifying infringement

Sergio Perez has been handed a penalty for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after the Cadillac driver was found to have impeded Oscar Piastri in Qualifying.

The Mexican, who has won on the streets of Baku twice before, had high hopes on Friday of achieving Cadillac's best Qualifying result of the season after encouraging pace in practice, but Perez ultimately failed to advance into Q2 and finished P20.

But post-Qualifying, stewards investigated an on-track incident where Perez had blocked Piastri while the McLaren driver was on a flying lap.

The incident took place throgh Turns 18, 19 and 20 while Perez was on a preparation lap and weaving to warm his tyres.

The stewards noted that he "had received two warnings of Piastri approaching and did not manage his preparation lap in accordance with the specific traffic-management instructions".

As a consequence, "Piastri confirmed that he had to lift because of Perez, although he did not consider that he ultimately lost significant lap time as a consequence".

The stewards "considered whether the incident was dangerous but, having reviewed the evidence and heard both drivers, determined that it was not", but added that "the fact that Piastri was required to lift was sufficient to establish that he had been unnecessarily impeded".

As a result, Perez has been handed a three-place grid penalty for Saturday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Perez will still maintain his position of P20 though, as the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll are set to serve larger grid penalties for engine changes.

Further up the order the Williams of Carlos Sainz, who had qualified in ninth, was hit with a five-place grid penalty for a failure to slow for yellow flags.