At the Monaco Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly lost a potential podium finish due to two time penalties
Pierre Gasly feels he was unfairly robbed of a podium finish after the Monaco Grand Prix. Although the Alpine driver crossed the finish line in third place, the 30-year-old is now only seventh in the standings due to two time penalties.
The time penalties were issued for two infractions in the pit lane. According to the FIA, Gasly was driving too fast there on two occasions, though he was only 0.1 and 0.4 km/h over the speed limit in each instance. In addition to Gasly, drivers such as George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were also penalized for the same infraction at the Monaco Grand Prix.
“I don’t think anything could hurt me more right now,” Gasly explained after the race. “I’ve been working my ass off for this moment for ten damn years. We did everything right today to stand on the podium in front of all these fans. You can’t take those moments away from someone for unfair reasons.”
“What’s happening right now isn’t right, and I hope they can still make the right decision,” Gasly continued. Why exactly so many drivers received penalties for pit lane speeding remains unclear so far.
On this, Gasly emphasized: “I know for a fact that the car was going slower than 60 km/h. And in both cases, I activated [the speed limiter] well before the pit lane line. That’s probably the simplest setting in a Formula 1 car.“
”If three or four teams are being penalized for speeding…,” Gasly begins. “Hopefully this serves as a warning to those guys to properly check [technical processes] beforehand, because this isn’t right.”
“You can see it in the data. I just hope they come up with something. You can look at the data, the speed I was driving at. It’s precise enough.”
“Hopefully we can fight for it,” says Gasly. “That won’t give me back the celebration on the podium with all the people, but a podium is a podium.”
“I’ve been fighting for every single opportunity for ten years,” emphasizes the Alpine driver. “I’ve had five podium finishes so far, and that’s far too few if you ask me. I deserve this [podium]. Hopefully we can do something.”
After the Grand Prix, Alpine filed a request for a review regarding the time penalties for Gasly. Furthermore, Gasly emphasizes that he drove one of his best races to date in Monaco.
“Absolutely, yes. I wouldn’t call it [my best race]—I’ve had many good ones. I just did what I had to do to seize this opportunity.”
“Today I was able to pass Norris at the start and defend my position for I don’t know how many laps,” says the one-time Grand Prix winner. “But that was really intense. Then I got hit by Hadjar at the restart…”
“It was a really good race, and I don’t want to celebrate it like this,” Gasly sums up. It remains to be seen how the post-race investigations will affect the result. Isack Hadjar could lose his third-place finish due to a team error during the race interruption.