How Fernando Alonso escaped FIA penalty and regained his Saudi GP podium

Fernando Alonso’s podium at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was the 100th of his career, but will be remembered more for the confusing and farcical situation that surrounded it.

Alonso celebrated on the podium, then was hit with a penalty that dropped him to fourth, only for that penalty to be overturned by the same set of race stewards a couple of hours later.

It turned into the main headline from an race which otherwise underlined just how far ahead Red Bull is at this point in the season.

Here’s why it all unfolded the way it did.

What happened in the race?

The incident that triggered this series of remarkable events happened in the moments just before the race started. As Alonso arrived in his second place grid slot, he did so with the contact patches of his Aston Martin’s left tyres crossing over the line marking the left-hand side limit of his grid spot.

Up until recently, the only rule governing a driver’s position in the grid slot was how far forward the car was but in this year’s sporting regulations the positioning of the front wheels within the side markings of the slot was also added. A yellow line is painted to the right-hand side of the white grid markings to give drivers a visual reference of how far forward they are in their slot, but lining up between the lines relies entirely on the driver’s approach to their position.

Lining up outside the box is an easily identifiable transgression thanks to cameras and technology on the grid, and results in a slam-dunk five second penalty (Esteban Ocon received the same penalty at the opening race two weeks earlier).

F1’s sporting regulations dictate that five-second time penalties must be served at the driver’s next pit stop, with the clock starting once the car has become stationary and mechanics waiting five seconds before starting work on the car. If the driver does not make another pit stop after being awarded the penalty, the five seconds are simply added to their race time at the end.

Alonso served his penalty at his pit stop on lap 18, during a safety car period triggered by the retirement of his teammate Lance Stroll. The Aston Martin mechanics observed the five seconds before getting stuck in to the tyre change, but whether they had started “work” on the car before that time became the key factor in the…