Explained: Why Kimi Antonelli was hit with a post-race F1 penalty despite retiring

Formula 1 championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli received a post-race five-second time penalty for multiple track limits infringements despite retiring from the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

Antonelli was repeatedly flagged for violating track limits during Sunday’s 66-lap race at Barcelona, prompting several warnings from his Mercedes race engineer Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington.

While it was not immediately clear, Antonelli was found guilty of breaching track limits on more than three occasions during the grand prix as he hunted down Mercedes team-mate George Russell.

The penalty was only confirmed after the race, and Antonelli was hit with a five-second time penalty. This made no difference to the result because the 19-year-old Italian ultimately retired.

In issuing the penalty, the stewards revealed one of the infringements had not been detected during the race. As a result, Antonelli received a black-and-white warning flag after his fourth violation, not his third.

"The stewards reviewed video evidence," the stewards said in their verdict.

"The car left the track four times during the race without justifiable reason. The stewards acknowledge that the driver did not receive a black/white flag after his third infringement but rather after his fourth infringement as one earlier infringement was only detected later in the race.

"However, based on the current regulations and driving standards guidelines, this does not exempt the driver from complying with the regulations.”

The stewards urged F1’s governing body the FIA to "revisit the current procedures and guidelines as soon as possible”, having acknowledged there “might be some ambiguity” in the reverent guidelines.

It is understood that McLaren noticed and flagged the infringement.

Lando Norris’s race engineer, Will Joseph, told the reigning world champion during the race that Antonelli had exceeded track limits more than three times and would receive a penalty.

That was despite the information not being communicated by race control at the time.

Antonelli has seen his championship advantage cut to 41 points over Lewis Hamilton, who claimed his first victory with Ferrari. Hamilton beat Russell by nearly 20 seconds to secure a famous maiden win in red.

“Of course, on my side, it hurts, but it's not that we were going to win the race today anyway,” Antonelli said as he reflected on his setback.