Alonso’s US GP penalty cancelled as Alpine force review · RaceFans

The penalty Fernando Alonso received after the United States Grand Prix has been cancelled, and the driver restored to his originally finishing position of seventh, after his team successfully petitioned the stewards to review their decision.

Alonso was highly critical of the decision to penalise him by adding 30 seconds to his race time, which dropped him to 15th place in the race’s classification. Following a protest brought by rivals Haas, the stewards originally judged Alpine had run his car in an unsafe condition after it was damaged in a collision with Lance Stroll, leading to its right-hand mirror falling off.

Alpine succeeded in overturning the decision by showing the stewards they had been wrong to accept the protest by Haas because it had been submitted too late. The decision was reached following two hearings involving the teams and the stewards on Thursday, the first of which saw Alpine’s initial protest quashed by the stewards on the grounds it was inadmissible.

However the team still retained the right to request a review of the incident if it was able to prove new evidence had emerged. It did this partly by relying on information which it learned during the two protest hearings.

The stewards acknowledged in their original verdict last week that Haas lodged their protest 24 minutes after the deadline for such submissions, which is 30 minutes after the provisional classification of the race is issued. Alpine were not aware of that fact until the first hearing at the Circuit of the Americas.

It then emerged during Thursday’s protest hearing that an FIA race control official had informed Haas it had one hour to submit a protest rather than 30 minutes. Alpine submitted this new information showed the protest could have been submitted on time, arguing Haas “could have lodged a handwritten protest within the 30-minute deadline.”

Speaking to media at the circuit on Thursday, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner indicated they could have submitted their protest earlier. Asked by they submitted the protest 24 minutes late, he replied: “Because we were not in a hurry.”

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The stewards accepted Alpine’s submissions included a “significant and relevant new element” and therefore agreed to review whether Haas’s original protest should have been considered.

Alpine argued that the stewards cannot permit teams to contravene the rules of the International Sporting Code. Although the ISC allows…