MELBOURNE, Australia – Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso has been given a 20-second penalty for what the Australian Grand Prix stewards deemed an “unusual manoeuvre” which led to George Russell’s dramatic crash on the final lap.
The penalty drops Alonso from sixth to eighth in the standings.
Russell crashed through Turn Six while chasing Alonso for position.
The incident was referred to the stewards due to the way Alonso had appeared to dramatically lose speed on entry, with Russell following less than half a second behind.
After an investigation on Sunday evening Alonso was found to have breached Article 33.4 of the sporting regulations, which states: “At no time may a car be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person.”
The stewards verdict said: “Telemetry shows that Alonso lifted slightly more than 100m earlier than he ever had going into that corner during the race.
“He also braked very slightly at a point that he did not usually brake (although the amount of brake was so slight that it was not the main reason for his car slowing) and he downshifted at a point he never usually downshifted.
“He then upshifted again, and accelerated to the corner before lifting again to make the corner. Alonso explained that while his plan was to slow earlier, he got it slightly wrong and had to take extra steps to get back up to speed.
“Nonetheless, this manoeuvre created a considerable and unusual closing speed between the cars.”
Alonso’s was given a drive-through penalty, but as the race had already finished that was converted in 20 seconds added onto his race time.
That dropped the two-time world champion behind Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, although the rest of the points-paying positions were unaffected.
Alonso also had three points added to his superlicence.
The 42-year-old said in a statement on social media: “Double points for the team and a better race pace than the rest of the weekend allowed us to cross the finish line in sixth and seventh place. A bit surprised by a penalty at the end of the race regarding how we should approach the corners or how we should drive the race cars.
“At no point do we want to do anything wrong at these speeds. I believe that without gravel on that corner, on any other corner in the world we will never be even investigated.
“In F1, with over 20 years of experience, with epic duels like Imola…
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