A mishap from the Mercedes team saw a red flag deployed early on during Q3.
Mercedes is currently under investigation by the F1 race stewards for creating an unsafe situation during qualifying, which led to a red flag being thrown by race control in Q3. The team mistakenly sent Kimi Antonelli’s car onto the track with its cooling fans still attached, causing chaos on the circuit. One of the cooling fans ended up in a gravel trap, while the second one stopped on the racing line after Turn 2, leading to a collision with Lando Norris’s McLaren and causing it to break into numerous pieces. Norris promptly informed his team about hitting debris and requested a thorough check of his car for any possible damage. Despite facing challenges, Antonelli managed to participate in the session after Mercedes made repairs following a significant crash in FP3, eventually getting a lap time in Q1.
