F1 2023: Fernando Alonso’s podium finish reinstated at Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Moments after celebrating a third-place finish, Fernando Alonso was forced to hand back his trophy following a penalty - and that was just the start of the farce at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
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Fernando Alonso’s 100th career podium was ripped from his clutches mere moments after the Spaniard celebrated with a champagne shower in Jeddah – only to have it returned in a back room a few hours later.
In a crazy few hours following the Aston Martin star’s stellar drive to the third step of the podium, Alonso had his trophy taken and handed to Mercedes’ George Russell as race stewards were told to read their own rules.
Alonso was slapped with an early five-second time penalty for lining up outside of his grid box to cross the line in third behind the all-conquering Red Bull pairing of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen - but his smiles soon turned sour.
He was subsequently hit with a 10-second time penalty after the checkered flag had fallen and relegated to fourth place, behind Russell.
Aston Martin was deemed to have illegally handled Alonso’s car, with footage showing a rear jack was applied before the five-second time penalty had been completed.
The two-time world champion was left frustrated by the outcome and questioned why the 10-second penalty was not communicated prior to the end of the race.
“It doesn’t hurt much to be honest,” Alonso said.
“I was on the podium, I did the pictures, I took the trophy, I celebrated with the champagne and I have now apparently three (championship) points less.”
“I think it’s more (that the) FIA fell short today than disappointment from ourselves.
“You cannot apply a penalty 35 laps after the pit stop. They had enough time to really inform (us) about the penalty because if I knew that, maybe I (would have) opened 11 seconds (gap) to the car behind.
“I care, but I don’t care that much because I celebrated (the podium) and now I have three points less (so) OK, let’s try to recover it in Australia.”
Article 16.3 of the FIA Sporting Regulations states: “Any decision or communication concerning a particular Competitor should be given to him within twenty-five minutes of such decision.”
It took more than 30 laps – and beyond the end of the race – for the FIA to communicate the 10-second penalty to Aston Martin.
And the stewards were apparently made aware of their own rules, choosing hours after the race had finished to reinstate Alonso’s podium.
Aston Martin petitioned the FIA to review the ruling of the 10-second penalty and were successful in the appeal.
“In support of the Petition for Review, the Stewards were shown minutes of the latest SAC meeting and video evidence of 7 different instances where cars were touched by the jack while serving a similar penalty to the one imposed on Car 14 without being penalised,” the FIA said in a statement.
“The clear submission by the Team was that the alleged representation of an agreement between the FIA and the teams that touching the car in any way, including with a jack, would constitute ‘working’ on the car for the purposes of Article 54.4(c) of the Sporting Regulations, was incorrect and therefore the basis of the Stewards’ decision was wrong.
“Having reviewed the video evidence presented and having heard from the Team representative of Aston martin and the relevant members from the FIA, the Stewards determined that there did exist significant and relevant new evidence as required under Article 14.1.1 to trigger a review of the decision, in particular the video evidence and the verbal evidence from the Team and from the FIA.
“Having reviewed the new evidence, we concluded that there was no clear agreement, as was suggested to the Stewards previously, that could be relied upon to determine that parties had agreed that a jack touching a car would amount to working on the car.
“In the circumstances, we considered that our original decision to impose a penalty on Car 14 needed to be reversed and we did so accordingly.”
Russell told reporters after the race he felt the penalty was “harsh” and that Alonso deserved to finish third.
“To be honest (I was) pleased to come home in P4. I think the penalty for Fernando is pretty harsh,” he said.
“They are the deserving podium finishers today but I’ll take an extra trophy so I’m not complaining too much.”
DISASTER STRIKES PIASTRI AS RED BULL’S ROMP CONTINUES
Red Bull’s romp to the Formula One world championship looks a fait accompli after Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen produced yet another one-two finish on the streets of Jeddah.
Perez converted just his second career pole into a fifth victory to lead home teammate Verstappen who, incredibly, rose from 15th on the grid to stand on the second step of the podium.
On the same streets where a safety car stole a possible victory for him in 2022, Perez refused to be denied a second time.
For all the fanfare over Aston Martin’s upgraded AMR23, Fernando Alonso could only watch meekly as a rampaging Verstappen roared past him on lap 25 to restore Red Bull’s double dominance at the top of the field.
“Max is a racer and he’s going to push and I think coming from 15th on the grid to second at a street circuit that’s pretty unusual,” Red Bull boss Christin Horner said post-race.
“Sergio stepped up to the challenge after that safety car and obviously my heart was in my mouth at that point because I’m envisioning that in three laps we’re going to have two drivers going at it hammer and tong but it didn’t materialize. Checo got the gap and managed it and his pace today was fantastic.”
Even the most optimistic rival must now concede the championship race is nothing more than a procession, given the ease with which the two Red Bulls made ground and then built a gap.
Alonso came home comfortably in third, only to have his 100th career podium ripped from his clutches.
The Spaniard stood on the third step but was forced to hand the trophy back only moments later, after the race stewards handed him a 10-second time penalty.
The Aston Martin man ultimately landed in fourth, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Ferrari’s sorry start to the season continued with Carlos Sainz crossing sixth ahead of Charles Leclerc in seventh – the gulf in quality between the Scuderia and Red Bull laid bare on the streets of Jeddah.
Having taken a 10-place grid penalty before the race, Leclerc started P12 – three places higher than Verstappen – but was powerless to push through the field with the same means of his one-time title rival.
With Verstappen unable to bridge a see-sawing seven second gap to Perez, the pair of Red Bulls instead battled for ownership of the fastest lap in an entertaining sideshow to an otherwise signed, sealed and delivered one-two.
“What’s the fastest lap?” Verstappen queried over the Red Bull radio in the dying stages, to which they replied: “We are not concerned about that, Max.”
“Yeah – but I am,” Verstappen retorted.
Battling a driveshaft complaint, the Dutchman nevertheless responded with a blistering final stint to steal the fastest lap from his teammate at the death and retain the championship lead – by a solitary point to Perez — ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.
“I was in second and we had a big gap behind so at one point we decided to call it a day and settle for second, which I think anyway was a very good recovery (starting from 15th),” Verstappen said.
“I gave it (the fastest lap) a go at the end so luckily it worked out.”
The race really is between the Red Bulls and no one else.
MCLAREN MISERY
Never bet against things going from bad to worse for McLaren.
The high of Oscar Piastri’s maiden top-10 qualifying finish lasted just seconds into Monday morning’s Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, with the Aussie quickly relegated to the back of the field due to yet another issue.
Only a fortnight after managing just 14 laps in his Formula One debut before being forced to retire the car, Piastri suffered damage to his right wing during the opening exchanges in Jeddah.
The Aussie rookie was forced to pit at the end of the opening lap after coming together with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and he tumbled from 8th to dead last.
Lightning struck twice – again – for McLaren with Lando Norris also forced to pit for a new front wing at the end of the second lap, putting the papayas at 19th and 20th.
Incredibly, Piastri completed the full race on a single set of tyres yet still managed to outduel Norris in the dying stages, before blitzing past an ailing Logan Sargeant to finish 15th.
Norris came home in 17th – the penultimate car across the line, with both Lance Stroll and Alex Albon unable to finish the race.
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