Alonso expected penalty for Leclerc and promotion to fourth place

2022 British Grand Prix

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Fernando Alonso expected to be promoted to fourth place in the classification for the British Grand Prix because he thought Charles Leclerc would be given a penalty.

Leclerc was involved in a dramatic three-way scrap with Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez in the closing stages of the British Grand Prix. Alonso, who was given a five-second time penalty for weaving in the previous race at Montreal, claimed Leclerc broke the same rule he was penalised for two weeks ago.

“P5 is mega,” he told media including RaceFans after the race, “even though I have to say that I guess it’s going to be P4 because I saw Charles moving three changes of direction on the back straight defending from Lewis.

“I did once in Canada and I had five seconds [penalty] on the last lap. So I guess three movements are not allowed.”

The stewards also noted a possible infringement involving Sergio Perez, who finished ahead of Alonso. The Alpine driver expected he would end up “for sure fourth, maybe third.

“After the race, there is always action. I guess today I am not in the stewards, so I will have fun from the outside I hope.”

Guanyu Zhou, Alfa Romeo, Silverstone, 2022
Gallery: 2022 British Grand Prix in pictures
But although Alonso was convinced “they will look” at the incidents, the stewards did not issue any post-race penalties. Alonso therefore remained fifth behind Leclerc, with Perez second ahead of Hamilton.

The Alpine driver enjoyed his brief participation in the multi-car scrap over the final laps. “It was really, really fun at the end,” he said.

“Obviously we weren’t in the fight, we were just behind and we saw all the action in front. We were P5. So I was hoping that two cars, maybe they’d touch each other and the podium was there for us.

“But at the end they raced very hard, but with a lot of respect. So still fun to watch from from behind.”

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2022 British Grand Prix

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...
Claire Cottingham
Claire has worked in motorsport for much of her career, covering a broad mix of championships including Formula One, Formula E, the BTCC, British...

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17 comments on “Alonso expected penalty for Leclerc and promotion to fourth place”

  1. Yeah, it really is frustrating how much the stewarding changes race to race with different panels of stewards seemingly having almost contrasting opinions on what should and what should not be investigated and penalised.

    The whole commentary team, and me and my brother watching with me all expected them to look at Perez, at Leclerc and at Verstappen moves, but they never seem to have even considered that.

    I mean, it was a great fight and I get the reluctance to get in there on the one hand. I am not even sure penalties were merited. But how are we ever going to get a predictable level of what is and is not allowed when it seems not even the stewards can agree between them and don’t even have a closer look at these things – while at the same time giving a rather useless penalty to Tsunoda (did we ever get to see what his 5 seconds was for, since it was apparently not for the incident with his teammate)?

    1. Agreed. Post race penalties are a nightmare and should be avoided if possible, but consistent application of the rules is key.

      There were several questionable moves among the front runners during this race and I don’t think any of them got penalties. Are those toward the back of the grid being punished for minor infractions in order to deter those at the front from major ones? I’m not convinced that those at the back would have got away with the moves of those at the front.

    2. Given some of the calls we’ve seen this year you can forgive Alonso for not seeing why others aren’t being punished for transgressions when he’s been done for minor infringments. It does make a mockery of the sport when if you’re driving one of the championship contending cars you get away with dirty driving because they’re scared of taking points off them. It was exciting to watch but Perez, Verstappen and Leclerc should all have received 5 second time penalties.

    3. I disagree. Stewarding is actually very reasonable and predictable.
      Everyone hates Alonso for what other people did in 2007 at McLaren. So he gets a penalty.
      If you are Verstappen, then do whatever you want. At worst, you get a meaningless time penalty without losing a position and points. Sometimes Leclerc is Verstappen, sometimes other drivers. But more often than not only Verstappen is Verstappen. So there you go – very reasonable and predictable.

      PS: But seriously, why change stewards from race to race?

    4. Is there any footage of what Alonso is referring to? It sounded like it was obvious but I couldn’t find any footage of it

      1. yes. There is.

  2. Jelle van der Meer (@)
    4th July 2022, 11:13

    Well Leclerc for sure should have gotten a penalty for the way he used his Ferrari as a bumper car to get past Perez earlier in the race.

    1. He played the first lap card that they all try and use for appalling driving standards at the start. Can’t just single out Leclerc for that, in fact Alonso has pointed out in the past that people get away with dirty driving at the starts all the time and he had to modify his own driving to be more aggressive because nothing was being done to stop it.

    2. Don’t get it, now you impose from how far behind a car is allowed to attempt an overtaking maneouver OR the distance it should brake etc? LEC took the exterior route on the previous corner + that meant a higher speed than PER, it was free on the inside for the next corner and he went for that gap. It was PER the one not careful, who suddenly closed the door by steering to the left.

      1. Checo had to do that as Max was on his outside at that moment and Checo had the racing line while Charles had nothing as the third person trying to get in the inside where there was no room.

    3. Verstappen-style

  3. Haha I like Alonso he is steering things up again. Time penalty’s are always inconsistent so better to leave it as it is unless it’s really clear penalty. Rather would have them give a stop and go penalty in the race instead of time penalty’s so you have to race for position again instead of reshuffle after the race.

  4. Can’t blame Alonso. Yesterday I thought Perez, Leclerc and Verstappen (when he was fighting Schumacher) will all be given penalties according to the previous stewarding but I was wrong.

    1. I didn’t understand Schumacher didn’t try to overtake Max on his inside as he didn’t had the grip to defend that. He went to the outside while he knows Max are going to end there he could be out of the race there.

  5. Leclerc seemingly didn’t pull erratic defense moves against Hamilton, though.

  6. Wasn’t the only penalty not applied to Leclerc who escaped a black and orange. Vettel also escaped a clear penalty for ramming Albon and so did Ocon for his dangerous parking and failing to use a run-off area (the pit would have been a good choice), something Verstappen was penaltilized 3 grid positions for at Japan in 2015.

    If people think the stewards controls whoever gets the penalties and when, then they didn’t watch last years final race. Everything is controlled from the top and Masi was no doubt thrown under the bus by Liberty. They want to give people a show – the average F1 viewer only watches the top6-8 cars, the rest are irrelevant to them and so the set of double standards are effectuated. Also the bigger teams/drivers often gets away with more because they hold more sway in terms of fans and overall influence.

  7. I though at least Verstappen would get a penalty for his Schumacher antics, but nooooo, he’s FIA’s golden boy

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