Alpine clears first hurdle in Gasly’s Monaco GP penalty challenge

The FIA stewards have upheld the Alpine team’s request to review the two five-second pitlane speeding penalties Pierre Gasly received at the Monaco Grand Prix, which knocked the Frenchman off the podium.

Gasly crossed the line in third in Monaco but was demoted to seventh after the stewards applied two separate five-second penalties for speeding in the pitlane.

Gasly was one of six drivers penalised for speeding in the race, which prompted concerns over issues with the timing loop system used to police pitlane speeds. Some of those infractions arrived despite the drivers in question taking extra care to avoid speeding, which included driving well below the 60 km/h limit and taking a wider line into the pitlane entry.

Alpine immediately requested a right of review on Sunday night, with the FIA accepting on Thursday that Alpine’s request was admissible. The governing body will now look at whether Gasly’s penalties should be rescinded.

In the video conference between Alpine and the stewards, which was also attended by the majority of the other teams, it was established that the distance measuring system used to measure pitlane speeds was “inaccurate and overestimated the speed” of Gasly’s car. This was based on evidence provided by FOM, which is responsible for the timing system.

This evidence was provided by FOM on Wednesday, which means it was unavailable to the race stewards at the time, one of several key hurdles a right of review needs to clear to be admitted.

Alpine argued that “the FIA and FOM, but not the Race Stewards, were aware in advance of the race that there was an issue with the timing loops in the pitlane”, although representatives from both sides disputed that.

After the third speeding penalty in the race, which was already an extremely unusual number of infractions, the stewards checked with race control if they were aware of a timing issue, which they were not.

The actual right of review hearing started shortly after the stewards’ admittance on Thursday afternoon. The outcome can have wider implications because other drivers were also affected by the timing issue. Mercedes championship contender George Russell’s race spiralled after he was penalised for speeding and then received a drive-through for not serving the penalty correctly, which crucially dropped him out of the points.

Gasly called the demotion the hardest sporting moment of his career, with Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar instead celebrating on the iconic Monaco podium.

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– The Autosport.com Team