Cadillac loses its first F1 point as Perez penalized over restart

Cadillac has missed out on its first world championship point in Formula 1 as Sergio Perez was demoted from 10th place by a post-race penalty at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Perez originally finished 10th – the final point-scoring position – but with an investigation still to take place over his car’s positioning for the final restart after a red flag period. Perez was deemed to have been out of position on the grid, and despite Cadillac arguing that the car moved due to a soft brake pedal late in the race, the stewards did not accept the explanation and handed out a 10-second time penalty.

“Video evidence showed clearly that the front-right wheel of Car 11 was outside the starting box,” the stewards’ decision read. “The standard penalty is applied.”

The penalty drops Perez from 10th to 15th in the final classification, making him the last of the cars still running at the checkered flag. Perez – who had already served an in-race penalty for taking the original race start from Gabriel Bortoleto’s vacant grid slot one row ahead of his own – had initially been promoted into 10th by a time penalty for Nico Hulkenberg.

Not only does the penalty prevent Cadillac from scoring the first point of its short F1 history, it also means Fernando Alonso moves up to 10th place as a result, giving Aston Martin its first point of the season and demoting Cadillac to 11th in the constructors’ championship.

Another post-race investigation took place into podium finisher Isack Hadjar, with Red Bull accused of carrying out work on his car that isn’t permitted under red flag conditions. Red Bull was trying to rectify a power unit issue, but halted work once it was informed it wasn’t allowed to do so, and the stewards accepted that no changes were made to the car’s state before the race resumed.

“The team were reported as attempting to change spark plugs/coils but did not proceed with the change and the car started in the same condition as it arrived in the pits, therefore no further action is taken,” the stewards' report explained.