Fernando Alonso has been given two penalty points on his licence for colliding with Mick Schumacher during the Turkish Grand Prix.
The Alpine driver, who started fifth, was knocked into a spin at the start and fell to 16th place. He was trying to pass Schumacher for 15th place when the pair made contact.Alonso closed on his rival around the outside of the left-hander turn three and tried to pass on the inside of turn four. But as they turned in the pair made contact, Alonso’s front-left wheel hitting Schumacher’s right-rear.
Schumacher was knocked into a spin and fell to 19th place, while Alonso continued. However the stewards soon announced a five-second time penalty for the Alpine driver, which he served during the race.
The stewards ruled Alonso was never in position to successfully make a move on Schumacher.
“Alonso tried to make a move on Schumacher at the inside at the approach to turn four, but never got in a position to complete the move and made contact with the inside rear wheel of Schumacher’s car, causing the latter to spin,” they noted. “The stewards determine that Alonso is predominantly to blame.”
Alonso’s penalty points are the first he has received since returning to F1 this year.
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2021 Turkish Grand Prix
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baasbas
10th October 2021, 15:02
So they judged the incidents to be the same in regards to Gasly then. I don’t believe any amount of explaining by the stewards will make it acceptable for me..
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
10th October 2021, 15:18
These decissions are quite strange today.. Not sure what the exact goal is of the stewards?
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
10th October 2021, 15:43
Totally agree. Sainz pass on Vettel would have been a crash if Vettel didn’t completely back out and stop in the corner.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
10th October 2021, 15:21
Unfortunate move. Pretty sure he was angry, not 100% clear judgement.
Broccoliface
10th October 2021, 15:24
I wonder if they gave gasly a penalty as well so he wouldn’t kick off to the media again about fairness, as this seemed a cast iron pen in comparison.
rodewulf (@rodewulf)
10th October 2021, 15:25
The stewards seem to like to distribute the burden with this “predominantly to blame” thing and stock it up for latter. We’ve seen that with Verstappen, now with Alonso. But not with Leclerc. Not already with Sainz (who understeered into Vettel this race). Is it FIA – Ferrari International Assistance – coming into play again?
It felt a very questionable decision to punish Gasly and Alonso but not Sainz. It shouldn’t work as an ultimate excuse towards first lap incidents though.
Steve (@scbriml)
10th October 2021, 16:28
I thought the Gasly penalty was a bit harsh on lap one in damp conditions. Alonso’s was a slam-dunk penalty, damp track or not.
Balue (@balue)
10th October 2021, 17:48
@scbriml Clear penalty. For sure his rage was up and thought the Haas would just give up the place.
Shame after such amazing qualifying. Could have been top 5 for him. Gasly has history at T1, so maybe should have been more careful.
rodewulf (@rodewulf)
11th October 2021, 0:02
@balue
Penalty applied correctly, it’s clear. And for the rage, he even hinted it when he said he shouldn’t be in that position and it wouldn’t happen otherwise, so he really threw any caution to the wind. With his race already ruined (and the lack of opportunities for a recovery was something really sad), it barely made any difference in the end.
Exactly. Alonso was probably craving for a podium finish after so many non-podium points results and as such he tried another superb start on the outside to put himself in defense of track position, not a bad plan tbh, but it was high risk, as so many things he did this season. Of course, even the old fox won’t get those right everytime.
Ajaxn
10th October 2021, 18:38
Looks like pay back for Alson sticking two fingers up at the FiA last week….
Its also their way of keeping this maverick in check going forward.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th October 2021, 20:29
Meh, alonso’s race was ruined with the gasly clash anyway, penalty or not.
rodewulf (@rodewulf)
11th October 2021, 0:13
Ajaxn
As @esploratore1 stated above, he probably knew it was over already, after Gasly took him out and the race was set to be too predictable with unchangeable weather. After that he threw any caution to the wind on the spot and as a consequence took the blame for his role on the Schumacher spin incident, so FIA is not avenging him.