Hadjar disqualified from Miami Grand Prix Qualifying

Isack Hadjar will start the Miami Grand Prix from the pit lane after the Red Bull driver was excluded from Qualifying for a technical infringement, before also being penalised for changes made under parc ferme conditions.

The Frenchman had qualified ninth, seven places behind four-time World Champion team mate Max Verstappen, as Red Bull showed an encouraging turn of pace following the introduction of a significant upgrade package.

However, Hadjar and his Red Bull team were called to the stewards on Saturday evening following an inspection of the Frenchman's car.

The stewards found a small section of the left and right-hand side floorboard was protruding outside of the permitted reference volume by 2mm and thus contravened the regulations.

As a result, Hadjar was disqualified from Qualifying – although as he had set times in practice that were deemed satisfactory by the stewards, he had been permitted to start the race from the back of the grid.

However, a further update confirmed that power unit elements and the control electronics unit had been changed under parc ferme conditions, with the Frenchman now starting from the pit lane.

Red Bull have accepted the penalty and do not intend to appeal, with boss Laurent Mekies apologising to Hadjar for the mistake.

“We made a mistake and we respect the decision of the Stewards,” said Mekies. “No performance advantage was intended nor gained from this error.

“We will learn from this incident and assess our processes to understand how it occurred and to take steps to ensure it cannot happen again.

“As a team, we apologise to Isack, and to our fans and partners. We learn the hard way today but we will move forward.

“Now our focus is on converting yesterday’s encouraging showing into a strong race performance this afternoon.”

The Miami Grand Prix will start at an earlier-than-planned 1300 local time, with the decision taken due to heavy rain forecast in the area on Sunday – and with Kimi Antonelli set to start on pole for Mercedes.