Pierre Gasly Attracts $107 Fine, Narrowly Avoids Race Ban on First Outing With Alpine

Pierre Gasly had an absolute stinker of a debut with Alpine. Gasly’s lap time was deleted after he went over track limits during his final run in the dying minutes of Q1.

He failed to set a good lap time in any of his previous runs. Resulting in the Frenchman getting knocked out in Q1 itself. Not the debut that he would have imagined having with his new team.

Meanwhile his teammate Esteban Ocon managed to scrape though into Q3. Ocon qualified P9 for Sunday’s race. The pole position was bagged by Max Verstappen with a time of 1:29.708.

 

While Gasly might consider himself unlucky for missing the white line by millimetres. But he was lucky to be mercifully let go by the FIA after narrowly avoiding a Race ban.

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Pierre Gasly came close to a Race ban on his first race weekend with the Alpine

Pierre Gasly might have not enjoyed the evening after being excluded in Q1 itself. He will be forced to start the race from the back of the grid in P20. But that’s far better than being banned from starting itself.

Pierre was notified by the FIA for speeding in the pitlane. Turns out he clocked a speed of 80.6 KmH which sent alarm bells at the Stewards office. Yes, Gasly was just 0.6 KmH faster than the mandated 80 KmH speed limit.

The Race Director later conveyed that Car No. 10 breached Article 34.7 of F1’s Sporting Regulations. As a result, Alpine was fined €100 or $107 for the actions of its driver.

Moreover, Gasly narrowly avoided accruing penalty points following the incident. The Stewards might have deemed penaly points unnecessary as Gasly went faster by only a fraction. Yet, he is just 2 points shy of a potential race ban

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How many penalty points does Gasly have?

Pierre Gasly has 10 Penalty points to his Superlicense. He has the highest tally of penalty points in the current F1 grid. The closest to his number is Lance Stroll with 8 points.

FIA hands penalty points to drivers upon exhibiting misdemeanours, causing accidents or dangerous driving. According to FIA’s guidelines, if a driver accumulates 12 penalty points over the course of a year, they will receive a one-race ban.

This means Gasly is pretty close to being suspended for a weekend. His latest date of expiry is 22 May 2023. Which means, he won’t be renouncing any points until the 2023 Monaco GP.

Pieere might have not enjoyed an ideal debut with Alpine. But the Frenchman needs to be more careful with petty issues which could arguably affect his and Alpine’s championship standings.

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