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Gabriel Bortoleto will have to serve a five-place grid penalty at next weekend's Qatar Grand Prix after causing a multi-car smash at the start of the Las Vegas race. The Sauber driver attempted to make up several places on the inside line of the first corner but misjudged his braking zone and smashed into the side of Lance Stroll.
That caused race-ending damage to the Aston Martin and also sent it into the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, spinning the Frenchman around. He was able to continue, but neither Stroll nor Bortoleto were so lucky as they became the first retirees from the Grand Prix.
The stewards unsurprisingly decided Bortoleto was at fault for the smash and ordinarily would have handed the Brazilian driver a 10-second time penalty. However, because he had already retired from the race, that punishment has been converted into a five-place grid drop for next Sunday's Grand Prix in Qatar.
Explaining the decision, the stewards said: "The driver of Car 5 [Bortoleto] braked extremely late and, as a result, collided with Car 18. Even though this was a lap one, turn one, incident, mitigating circumstances do not exist and hence the standard 10 second penalty would have applied.
"However, as Car 5 retired, the penalty is converted into a grid penalty for the next race in which the driver participates, in accordance with our guidelines."
For causing the incident, Bortoleto has also had two penalty points added to his racing licence. They are the first that the rookie racer has amassed since he began racing in Formula 1, having enjoyed a very clean debut season up to this point.
Another incident at the first corner saw Liam Lawson bang wheels with Oscar Piastri, which caused the McLaren driver to slip behind both Racing Bulls cars on the first lap. The stewards looked into what happened but, in the end, decided to take no further action against Lawson.
Explaining why, the stewards said: "Car 30 [Lawson] made a move to the right and collided with Car 81 [Piastri] however in mitigation Car 30 made the move to avoid colliding with the rear of Car 63 [George Russell] whose driver locked up to avoid a collision with Car 55. In view of this and the fact that this was on lap one, turn one, we determine no further action."