The FIA have issued a post-race penalty to AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly, after he was caught speeding under red flags in the tractor incident at the Japanese Grand Prix, find out what exactly happened, the F1 2022 rules and what is article 57.2
Despite his enraged protests about the tractor presence on the track, the FIA still punished him for breaking the rules.
F1 2022 Red Flag Rules And FIA Article 57.2 Meaning
🚨 BREAKING: Pierre Gasly has been given a drive through penalty (20 seconds added to elapsed race time) and 2 penalty points (total of 9 for the 12 month period) for “speeding under red flag conditions” 🚩#F1 #Autosport #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/JX7LKyK8fN
— Autosport (@autosport) October 9, 2022
Glad to go home safe tonight. For the respect of Jules, all his family and for our safety and the one of the marshals, there should never be any tractor nor marshals on track in such conditions with such poor visibility. Period.
— PIERRE GASLY 🇫🇷 (@PierreGASLY) October 9, 2022
For clarity, as discussed with the stewards, the penalty was given for going too fast between T14 & T15 which isn’t where the tractor was, I slowed down, but not enough and I take the blame for it. (1/2)
— PIERRE GASLY 🇫🇷 (@PierreGASLY) October 9, 2022
Coincidentally, the whole incident occurred at the same venue where Italian driver Jules Bianchi suffered fatal injuries in 2014 after hitting a stationary vehicle.
How It Happened
It all started when Gasly fell behind after a forced pitstop to remove some debris. Gasly initially started from the pit-lane at Suzuka, but he picked up debris from Carlos Sainz Jr’s opening lap crash.
As the other cars lined-up behind the Safety Car, Gasly tried to catch up to the pack. However, in the process, he went past a recovery tractor on track at high speed, seconds after a red-flag.
Gasly Faces Penalty
According to the Sporting Regulations, Gasly breached Article 57.2, which states that cars should return slowly to the pit-lane in the event of a red-flag.
The stewards found Gasly was driving at speeds of up to 251km/h – 155mph. Following talks with the French driver, he “conceded that there could have been marshals or obstacles on track and admitted that he was too fast.”
However, in his defence, the stewards also found that: “although the speed could not by any measure be regarded as “slow” as required in the regulations, it was slower that the maximum speed that could be achieved under these conditions.”
Moreover, officials also took into account Gasly’s initial reactions at the sight of the tractor on the racing line. Gasly was shocked and under disbelief which added to how he reacted the way he did.
As a result of all these factors, Gasly received a drive-through penalty. The penalty converted to 20s of added time to his race-time.
Updated Points And Ranking
The FIA also gave Gasly two penalty points on his super licence. This will take his points tally for the 12 month period to nine.
The change in points dropped Gasly from 17th to 18th in the final rankings of the Japanese GP. As a result, Mick Schumacher moved up ahead by one slot exchanging slots with Gasly.
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