Alpine clear first hurdle in review of Gasly's Monaco penalty

BARCELONA, June 11 : The Alpine Formula One team overcame the first hurdle on Thursday to a review of Monaco Grand Prix pit lane speeding penalties that cost Pierre Gasly a place on the podium.

Stewards said in a statement that the petition for review was admissible in both cases and accepted there was a significant and new element that was previously unavailable to the stewards at the time of the decisions last Sunday.

The virtual hearing on Thursday moved to a second stage ahead of the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

Renault-owned Alpine argued in a written submission that both the governing FIA and Formula One Management, but not the stewards, knew before the race that there was an issue with the timing loops in the pit lane.

The statement said Alpine also had data showing that Gasly activated the car's speed limiter before entering the pit lane and stayed within the limit.

Alpine argued in a written submission that "FOM, as Official Timekeeping Supplier to the Competition, provided evidence that the distance used in calculating the F1 Official Timing (and hence the pit lane speed) was inaccurate and overestimated the speed of Car 10".

Frenchman Gasly finished third on the road in Monaco, effectively a home race for him and his team, but was demoted to seventh after two five-second penalties for pit lane speeding were applied.

The decisions found Gasly, one of several drivers to be penalised for similar offences, was doing 60.1 and 60.4 kph when the limit was 60 kph.

Gasly said afterwards that he was "absolutely heartbroken" by the penalties and "to have a lifelong dream of a Monaco podium taken away from me for reasons which I just cannot comprehend".