Marcus Ericsson will drop three places on the Monza grid on Sunday after being found guilty of impeding Nico Hulkenberg during qualifying.
The Sauber F1 Team driver originally qualified an excellent tenth in Italy, but was deemed responsible for holding up Sahara Force India’s Hulkenberg during the first part of qualifying, meaning the Swede will start thirteenth.
The stewards also handed Ericsson two penalty points on his Superlicence for the incident, but revealed that the team had failed to inform him that Hulkenberg was approaching on a fast lap.
“Basically, in our team we have a system where the team gets information on the screens in the pitbox, whether another driver is on a quick or slow lap. Then they communicate that to me over the radio,” said Ericsson to Autosport.
“So when I’m out on a slow lap they tell me whether a car is coming or pushing, or on pace with me. So I get the call from the team everyone is on pace with me, no cars coming, to focus on preparing for a new lap, the tyres and all the switch changes I need to do.
“I was following the Ferraris, doing the preparations, the switch changes, and I then enter the Parabolica and when I exit I see Nico is right behind me.
“I had no idea he was coming on a flying lap. I got the information no one else was pushing behind me. I can see on the replay it doesn’t look good, but I had no idea he was coming. I understand the penalty.”
