FIA stewards hand out grid penalty after British GP qualifying

The FIA has come down hard on Pierre Gasly, handing him a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s British Grand Prix after finding him guilty of impeding Lance Stroll during qualifying.

The stewards accepted that Gasly had been left without the usual radio warning because of a technical issue with the FOM equipment, a point that was confirmed during the hearing. They also took into account that he had been carrying out radio checks and believed the car behind was not on a timed lap.

Despite those mitigating circumstances, the stewards ruled that the lack of a radio warning did not remove the driver’s responsibility to avoid impeding another car. After reviewing the available evidence, including the dashboard information available to Gasly, they concluded that he had unnecessarily impeded Stroll and imposed the standard three-place grid penalty. Below is the full stewards explanation.

“STR was on a timed lap in Q1. GAS was on an in lap and, on the approach to Turn 15, remained on the racing line at a slow speed, requiring STR to move off line in order to pass.

“GAS explained that he had no functioning radio at the time, that he had been attempting radio checks and that he expected another driver (ANT), to remain behind him rather than overtake, as he understood ANT not to be on a timed lap. The team representative pointed out that there was no radio warning to GAS because of a technical issue with FOM equipment, which was confirmed by FOM.

“The Stewards accepted that these were unfortunate circumstances and took into account that the driver was left without the usual radio warning from the team. The team representative of STR also confirmed that, in his view, the circumstances were unfortunate.

“However, the absence of a radio warning does not remove the driver’s responsibility to avoid impeding another car. GAS remained at a slow speed on the racing line and the evidence showed that the driver had information available to him, including the dashboard display, to appreciate STR was approaching on a timed lap. In those circumstances, the Stewards determined that GAS unnecessarily impeded STR and therefore impose the standard penalty of a 3 grid position drop.”

The FIA has also released the verdict on the investigations involving Esteban Ocon and Isack Hadjar. Ocon had been investigated for allegedly failing to slow sufficiently under single yellow flags at Turn 13, while Hadjar was investigated for exceeding the maximum permitted delta time between the Safety Car lines during qualifying. In both cases, the stewards opted for no further action.