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| Reuters: Mark Peterson |
Fernando Alonso has been relegated to eighth in the Australian Grand Prix, after a 20-second penalty was handed to him post race.
The Spaniard crossed the line sixth at Albert Park on Sunday, but was sent to the stewards for an incident late in the race involving George Russell.
The race finished under a virtual safety car after Russell went into the barriers at turn 6, while chasing Alonso on the penultimate lap.
The stewards investigated the incident, in which there was no contact between the cars, to see whether Alonso had slowed down earlier than usual, which resulted in Russell needing to change his driving.
Immediately after the race, Russell told media that he was much closer to Alonso going into the corner than he expected to be.
"I was half a second behind Fernando on the entry of the corner and then suddenly, before the apex, I was right on his gearbox and lost the car," he said.
The stewards decided that Alonso had changed his driving heading into turn 6 on the penultimate lap, which was described as "extraordinary" in a lengthy judgement.
"Telemetry shows that Alonso lifted slightly more than 100m earlier than he ever had going into that corner during the race," the panel said, reported F1.com.
"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.
"In considering the matter the stewards focused solely on the wording of the regulation 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'.
"Specifically, in this case, the stewards have not considered the consequences of the crash. Further, the stewards considered that they do not have sufficient information to determine whether Alonso's manoeuvre was intended to cause Russell problems, or whether as he stated to the stewards that he simply was trying to get a better exit.
"Should Alonso have the right to try a different approach to the corner? Yes. Should Alonso be responsible for dirty air, that ultimately caused the incident? No.
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| George Russell crashed out on the penultimate lap of the race.(Getty Images: Joe Portlock/Formula 1) |
"However, did he choose to do something, with whatever intent, that was extraordinary, i.e. lifting, braking, downshifting and all the other elements of the manoeuvre over 100m earlier than previously, and much greater than was needed to simply slow earlier for the corner? Yes, by his own account of the incident he did.
"In the opinion of the stewards by doing these things, he drove in a manner that was at very least 'potentially dangerous' given the very high speed nature of that point of the track.
The 20-second time penalty demoted Alonso from sixth to eighth.
His Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll was promoted to sixth, while RB driver Yuki Tsunoda was promoted to seventh.
- Michael Doyle
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