Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images
Gasly closer to race ban after red flag penalty
Pierre Gasly has picked up a further two penalty points for speeding under red flag conditions in the Japanese Grand Prix as well as receiving a time penalty.
The AlphaTauri driver passed a recovery vehicle on track just after the red flag was brought out on lap 2, and had been traveling at high speed but within his time delta under safety car conditions. However, for the rest of the lap he proceeded to drive too quickly and the stewards investigated the incident before handing him a drive-through penalty that is converted into 20 seconds of race time.
“After passing the scene of the incident, car 10 continued under the red flag situation, at speeds which exceeded 200 km/h on multiple occasions, and which reached 251 km/h at one point,” the stewards’ decision read. “The driver conceded that he now understood that there could have been marshals or obstacles on the track, and admitted that he was too fast.
“However, in mitigation of penalty, we take into account that although the speed could not by any measure be regarded as ‘slow’ as required in the regulations, it was slower that the maximum speed that could be achieved under these conditions. We also take into account the shock the driver experienced on seeing a truck on the racing line in the corner of the incident.”
The time penalty only drops Gasly one position to 18th in the final classification, but he was also given two penalty points, bringing him up to nine for the 12-month period. While two of those expire tomorrow (October 10), the remaining seven will stay on his license until May 22 next year, meaning he will be five points away from a race ban until after the seventh round of the season.
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
Read Chris Medland's articles
Latest News
Comments
Comments are disabled until you accept Social Networking Cookies. Update cookie preferences
If the dialog doesn't appear, ad-blockers are often the cause; try disabling yours or see our Social Features Support.