Pierre Gasly has been moved back three places on the grid for holding up Romain Grosjean in qualifying.
The stewards noted Red Bull failed to warn Gasly that Grosjean was approaching him.“The driver of car eight [Grosjean] had to brake hard to avoid colliding with car 10 which was going slowly on a preparation lap, and was on the race line.
“At the time car eight was clearly the only car on a fast lap in the area, and while the stewards accepted that it was unlikely that the driver of car 10 had any opportunity in that sequence of turns to see car eight, the team admitted that they had failed to give any warning. The stewards therefore determined that car 10 unnecessarily impeded car 8 and imposed a three grid place penalty and consistent with past practice imposed one penalty point.”
This article will be updated.
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Stuart
25th May 2019, 17:52
Should just force the drivers impeding to swap places with those they affected if they finish worse than them. Three places won’t change how he acts.
Dee (@bulsie)
25th May 2019, 18:14
That or the impeding driver should start right after the affected one.
Ninjenius (@ninjenius)
25th May 2019, 18:40
Then you’d have 18 cars playing “who can get held up by a Mercedes?” which to be fair would be quite a fun watch.
HK (@me4me)
25th May 2019, 17:54
Another small but costly mistake by Gasly and his race engineer. Unnecessary and unprofessional. I mean, this is what they do for a living, it’s their business to avoid such rookie mistakes.
Yaru
25th May 2019, 22:46
You’re making it sound like normal people don’t do mistakes in their regular jobs.
Also I put the blame more on the race engineer than Gasley.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
26th May 2019, 12:20
True, but not the ones that end up winning championships.
Nerrticus (@nerrticus)
25th May 2019, 18:28
I know “3 grid spots and a penalty point” is standard for these infractions but this felt more dangerous and careless than usual, being in the racing line after a blind corner. If Grosjean wasn’t as quick to react that would have been a major shunt.
Plus it cost RG a shot at Q3, which K-Mag had already shown was possible for the Haas.
Just my opinion, but I felt it warranted dropping Gasly behind Grosjean in the order.
Ipsom
25th May 2019, 20:06
+1
Grosjean had the pace
Chaitanya
26th May 2019, 2:08
+1 it wasnt just the brake testing around Casion square but Gasly impeded Grosjean again in Rascass. Grid drop should have served him better.
Jere (@jerejj)
25th May 2019, 18:50
”The driver of car eight [Grosjean] had to brake hard to avoid colliding with car 10 which was going slowly on a preparation lap, and was on the race line.”
– Grosjean didn’t have to brake because of Gasly’s presence, though. The only impact Gasly’s presence had there was his usage of the racing line, which forced Grosjean to drive over the legendary bump instead of circling it as per tradition.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
25th May 2019, 19:18
@jerejj
He did have to brake. Hard enough to lock both fronts.
https://twitter.com/F1/status/1132328724685381635
Jere (@jerejj)
25th May 2019, 19:42
@gt-racer Yes, I saw that later, and then realized I had mixed it up with a different situation. In which Grosjean at the same part of the circuit overtook someone between the Casino corner and Mirabeau by straight lining the bump instead of driving around it as per tradition, but I guess the driver on that occasion was someone else then. The footage you gave didn’t get shown on the world feed.
Dale Collison
25th May 2019, 21:53
Easy fix. All cars have to travel no less than 75% of their practice time when on any qualifying lap. Stop this ridiculous 200kmhr speed difference. Should ruin the tyres for the hot lap and mix the order up a bit! Couldn’t even be bothered watching the rest of this season anyway. F1 was ruined with the engine change.
Jon Bee
26th May 2019, 1:36
it’ll all count for nothing as I fully expect Grosjean to do something stupid during the race. Monaco is far to narrow for his level of skill.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
26th May 2019, 9:40
Why are people so against Grosjean? Are they basing is all on the first half of last season? His performance over the 2nd half of last season was very reasonable and better than his team mate. His luck has been terrible this season so far. Probably the worst of any driver. It may not look like it from the points, but Magnussen hasn’t exactly looked much better than him so far this season. Grosjean has just not had much of a chance to show what he’s capable of. Retired in the first 2 races. One due to the pit error and one due to Stroll. Then beat Magnussen by a pretty comfortable margin in China – just out of the points. Then he had a very long first stint and had problems with his car before he even pitted in Azerbaijan. Then without the safety car in Spain, he would have comfortably beaten Magnussen again. He has not had loads of crashes this year. It would be like basing Verstappen’s performance on the first 6 races of last year. In which case, verstappen is certainly going to crash. But he’s a lot better now.
The same with Grosjean, although clearly not on the same level as Verstappenen, he isn’t crashing like he used to and would be getting much better results without reliability problems and bad luck. He is not doing anywhere near as badly as people think he is this season.
Koopa
26th May 2019, 10:01
Ridiculous. Take me back to the 80s 90s when drivers just had to deal with traffic. It was part of the game.
Now we have these overpaid man-babies in their safety cages screaming for thier lives because other drivers are not jumping over the barriers to clear the way for their precious lap…
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
26th May 2019, 12:23
That was during the race, where there were no blue flags. During qualifying a guy being in the way, of say Ayrton Senna, that guy would be scolded just like they are now. You just didn’t remember it, or you weren’t watching yet.
Koopa
26th May 2019, 12:38
Never happened. Maybe they were given a private talking too by the impeded driver, but the FIA certainly didn’t get involved.
They just got on with it like grown adults, now these manbabies can’t wait to cry over the radio!