SPIELBERG, Austria -- McLaren has protested the results of qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix after the stewards deleted Oscar Piastri's fastest lap time in Q3.
The McLaren driver set the third fastest time of the day behind Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, but it was deleted shortly after when he was deemed to have all four wheels over the white line defining the track limit on the exit of Turn six.
He then had to rely on the lap time he set earlier in Q3, which dropped him to seventh on the grid.
After qualifying, he described the decision to delete his lap as "embarrassing," referencing the FIA's extensive efforts to reduce track limits transgressions this weekend and the tiny margin by which he was found to be over the white line.
Strips of gravel were installed on the exits of Turns Nine and 10 at the Red Bull Ring this year after 12 post-race penalties were issued following last year's race for track limits transgressions at those two corners.
Turn Six, where Piastri ran wide, has always had an expansive gravel trap beyond the kerb, but it still has enough space between the gravel and the white line for a driver to be marginally outside of track limits but not in the gravel.
"For me it's embarrassing," Piastri said after the race. "We do all this work for track limits, put gravel in in places, and I didn't even go off the track.
"I stayed on the track, probably my best Turn Six and it gets deleted. I mean, I don't know why they've spent hundreds of thousands, if not millions, trying to change the last two corners when you still have corners you can go off.
"But anyway, everyone else kept it in the track, I didn't, that's how it goes."
