The stewards of the Australian Grand Prix handed Lance Stroll a five second time penalty after deeming him guilty of making more than one move to defend his position.
But were the stewards correct to penalise the Aston Martin driver for a seldom-sanctioned infringement of the rules of racing?
Incident
At the end of lap 37, Valtteri Bottas was in pursuit of Lance Stroll’s 12th position, with the pair both on hard tyres after pitting earlier in the race.
As the pair rounded the final corner to begin lap 38, Bottas tucked into the Aston Martin’s slipstream and activated DRS, while Stroll ahead also had DRS due to being within a second of Esteban Ocon’s 11th placed Alpine.
Stroll moved to the right to defend his position, then appeared to move back towards the racing line as Bottas pulled closer, before moving back to the right a second time before holding the inside line into turn one. Bottas appeared to lift off due to uncertainty over Aston Martin’s movements, before taking the…