Stroll and Magnussen penalized after qualifying

Lance Stroll and Kevin Magnussen have both been penalized following the end of qualifying for the United States Grand Prix.

Both drivers were involved in separate incidents in Q1 at Circuit of The Americas, with Stroll blocking Romain Grosjean in the final sector. The Williams driver was on a warm-up lap and had slowed before the final corner but was not informed of Grosjean approaching until very late. With Daniil Kvyat passing Stroll on the inside, the Canadian moved to the outside to try and get out of the way but Grosjean was forced onto the grass to avoid contact.

The stewards decided to hand out a three-place grid penalty and gave Stroll his first penalty point of the year for the incident, but placed the majority of the blame on his team.

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"The Stewards believe STR did what he could in the circumstances but nevertheless this was potentially a very dangerous situation as the speed differential between the two cars was in excess of 100 km/h at the apex of Turn 19," the decision read. "The Stewards believe the team should have given STR more advance warning that GRO was approaching rapidly."

Grosjean told RACER he felt sorry for Stroll as he was not informed and had very little chance to react, but added the dangerous nature of the situation needed punishing in his opinion.

While one Haas was on the receiving end of a block, the other also got a three-place grid penalty for impeding. Magnussen cut in front of Sergio Perez at Turn 12, and both he and Haas admitted fault as the team had told Magnussen that Perez was on an out-lap rather than a timed effort.

Magnussen was also handed a penalty point for the incident, which takes his total up to eight penalty points for the year. If a driver reaches 12 penalty points in a 12-month period they will receive an automatic one-race ban.

While Magnussen qualified 20th and last on the grid, the penalty is still valid due to power unit penalties for Max Verstappen (15 places), Nico Hulkenberg (20 places), Stoffel Vandoorne (five places) and Brendon Hartley (25 places).