Published 13:57 IST, March 20th 2023
What happened to Fernando Alonso after unprecedented scenes take place at Saudi Arabian GP
Fernando Alonso’s P3 finish at the F1 Saudi Arabian GP 2023 was reinstated hours after the 2-time World Champion was handed a 10 seconds penalty in Jeddah.
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Two-time F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso made the most headlines for the second time this season on a race day, courtesy of his brilliant drive during the Saudi Arabian GP 2023. While Alonso started Sunday’s main race from P2, he ended up finishing third behind the Red Bull duo of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen, respectively. However, moments after Alonso celebrated his historic 100th podium finish in Formula 1, FIA handed him a 10 seconds penalty for improperly serving a five-second stop-and-go penalty during the race.
The stewards found Alonso’s car to be outside the starting box during the race start on Sunday, which resulted in the 41-year-old receiving the five-second penalty. While he looked to serve the penalty during his pit stop, a rear jack was found to be touching his Aston Martin car prior to the five seconds have elapsed. The 10 seconds penalty then sent Alonso to P4, whereas Mercedes driver George Russell was promoted to the final podium place in Jeddah.
Saudi Arabian GP: FIA's statement on reversing the penalty on Fernando Alonso
However, as the day passed, the FIA reversed their decision and reinstated Alonso’s P3 finish after Aston Martin submitted a letter to review the second penalty. This meant Mercedes and Russell would have to wait for their maiden podium finish in the ongoing F1 2023 season. Here’s what FIA said about their decision to reverse Alonso’s penalty.
"Having reviewed the video evidence presented and having heard from the Team representative of Aston Martin and the relevant members from the FIA, the Stewards determined that there did exist significant and relevant new evidence as required under Article 14.1.1 to trigger a review of the decision, in particular the video evidence and the verbal evidence from the Team and from the FIA. It was clear to us that the substratum of the original decision, namely the representation of there being an agreement, was called into question by the new evidence,” an excerpt of FIA’s statement read.
"We therefore proceeded to hear the substance of the request for review. Having reviewed the new evidence, we concluded that there was no clear agreement, as was suggested to the Stewards previously, that could be relied upon to determine that parties had agreed that a jack touching a car would amount to working on the car. In the circumstances, we considered that our original decision to impose a penalty on Car 14 needed to be reversed and we did so accordingly,” FIA added.
12:42 IST, March 20th 2023