Danill Kvyat moves closer to race ban after Hungarian GP qualifying penalty

Danill Kvyat has moved closer to a Formula 1 race ban after the Hungarian Grand Prix stewards handed him an additional point on his licence and a three-place grid drop after he impeded Lance Stroll.

After making a mistake at Turn 4 in Q1, Kvyat was on a slow lap back to the pits, while Williams driver Stroll was on a quick lap, trying to get himself out of the Q1 drop-zone. 

Toro Rosso proved that they warned the Russian of the approaching Canadian, but in the eyes of the stewards, Kvyat did not move out of the way quickly enough.

In a statement the stewards said: "The acknowledged that he was warned by the team very late of the approach of Stroll who was on a fast lap.

"Further, Kvyat pulled as far to the right as he could as soono as he saw Stroll.

"However, the stewards considered that these were not mitigating circumstances.

"Kvyat was driving exceptionally slowly and taking the racing line at the end of Q1 when other drivers were attempting to set fast laps and this led to the unnecessary impeding."                                         

The addition of a further penalty point takes Kvyat to 10 for a 12 month period with two points set to come off at the United States Grand Prix in October.

It is the third race in succession that Kvyat has been handed penalty points after he was given two at the Austrian Grand Prix for crashing into Fernando Alonso at the start and a further two at the British Grand Prix for crashing into team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr on the opening lap. 

The Russian had qualified in 13th place, but now drops to 16th after the three place penalty is applied. 

He is currently in 16th place in the standings having scored four points, compared to Sainz's 29.