The International Motorsport Federation FIA has revoked the 30-second penalty imposed on Fernando Alonso at the United States Grand Prix on Thursday night (Dutch time). The Alpine driver thus regains his seventh place and corresponding World Cup points.
By our sports editorsAlonso had to relinquish seventh place in Austin on Sunday after crews overrode rival team Haas over the safety of his car. But since that protest was filed after the deadline, the sentence has now been quashed.
Among other things, Haas felt that Alonso, who was missing his windshield, should have driven to the pit lane of his own volition for repairs. This initially resulted in a ten-second time penalty for Alonso. But as the race was already over, that penalty was changed to a 30-second penalty.
According to the FIA, Haas’ protest did not come within the mandatory thirty minutes, while the team had plenty of time to do so. If the objection can be registered only after thirty minutes, the circumstances make it impossible to do so earlier.
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Haas points to the FIA official
Haas conceded that he could have filed the opposition earlier. The American team blames the FIA official who allegedly gave them half an hour more. According to Haas, stewardesses don’t have to adhere to strict deadlines.
By converting the penalty, Alonso takes his seventh place and six points with it. Sebastian Vettel, Kevin Magnussen, Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon are one place behind. So Ocon falls outside the points.
Alonso will be in action next weekend in Mexico, where the first free practice starts at 8pm on Friday. With three races to go (Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi), the Spaniard is ninth in the World Cup standings.
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