Frenchman Pierre Gasly (Alpine), who finished third in the Monaco F1 Grand Prix on Sunday before falling to seventh place due to two penalties, finally regained his place on the podium after lodging a protest, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) said on Friday.
The Norman, who crossed the line in third position, received two five-second penalties due to two speeding incidents of 0.1 and 0.4 km/h in the pit lane and was ultimately classified seventh. But Alpine challenged these sanctions and won their case due to a timing problem.
“We welcome the decision taken by the FIA to deem admissible our request for the right of review following the final result of the Monaco Grand Prix. As a result, the stewards canceled the two five-second penalties imposed on the No. 10 car, which restores the team’s third place,” Alpine reacted in a press release.
“We would like to thank the FIA and Formula One Management for their transparency and cooperation throughout the appeal process, as well as for reaching this decision. The team is now fully focused on this weekend’s Barcelona Grand Prix and striving to achieve the best possible result with its two cars,” concludes the French team.
He steals the place of another Frenchman on the podium
Shortly after the race on Sunday, Alpine filed a “Right of Review” and to have a chance of recovering the third place obtained on track, it had to provide “a new, significant and relevant element (…) which was not available to the stewards at the time of the decision in question”.
And it succeeded in doing so, in particular because Formula One Management (FOM), in charge of timing, recognized an erroneous measurement on Wednesday.
“The FOM, as the official supplier of timing for the competition, provided evidence indicating that the distance used to calculate the official timing of F1 was inaccurate and overestimated the speed of car N.10,” the commissioners wrote in particular on Thursday.
This decision allows Pierre Gasly to secure the sixth podium of his career in F1, the third with Alpine and the first since the Brazilian GP in November 2024. He also recovers nine points in the world championship and moves up to eighth place with 35 points on the clock.
On the other hand, the young Frenchman Isack Hadjar, who thought he had won his first podium with Red Bull in Monaco, finally fell to fourth place.
