Pierre Gasly says he knew he was going to be stripped of his Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix podium as early as the late-race red flag, but still sarcastically celebrated his third place on the cooldown lap.
Gasly was one of several drivers penalised for pitlane speeding, with the Frenchman copping two time penalties for exceeding Monaco’s 60km/h limit twice, once by 0.1km/h and once by 0.4km/h.
A “heartbroken” Gasly was adamant he had done nothing wrong and had pressed the pitlane speed limit in time. The prevailing theory is that the sharp angle at which cars crossed the pitlane entry line played a role the flurry of infractions, as it shortened the distance between the measuring points that are used to calculate pit speeds.
“I don’t think there is anything that could hurt me more right now,” he said. “It’s 10 years I’m fucking working my ass off for this type of moment. We did everything right today [for] standing on that podium in front of all the fans that turned up.
“This is the type of moment that, for me, can’t be taken away from us by unfair reasons. What’s going on right now is not right and hopefully they can make the right choice.”
Despite the penalty, which dropped him to seventh in the final result as the grid was bunched up after the late red flag, Gasly still appeared to celebrate after the finish, yelling “fucking P3” before shaking his fist at several points of the circuit.
Pierre Gasly, Alpine A526
Photo by: Erik Junius
That prompted online speculation that Alpine hadn’t informed Gasly of the impending penalty, but the 30-year-old clarified that he knew about the penalty after being told by his race engineer. During the long red flag delay for track surface repairs, there was broadcast footage of Gasly furiously throwing away his towel as he digested his second five-second hit.
“I knew the situation when we stopped for the red flag and I just tried to push as hard as I could to maximise the end result, knowing the penalty was going to be applied,” he said.
On lap 66, as cars peeled in under the red flag, Gasly was informed on the team radio by his race engineer Josh Peckett that he had copped a second penalty despite undershooting the speed limit.
“Okay mate, we’ve been caught speeding again. Drive through the pitlane please. Under shoot speed. Under shoot speed properly please. Under shoot all the way along, I’m not sure what’s going on. It’s not just us, lots of cars are getting in. Just keep driving through.”
Gasly’s fake celebration contained a mixture of anger and sarcasm as he tried to process what he felt was a great injustice, losing the prospect of celebrating on Monaco’s iconic podium, which he called a “lifelong dream”.
Soon after the race, Alpine requested a Right of Review with the FIA, where it will try to prove that at no point from pit entry Gasly’s car had broken the 60km/h speed limit.
“I know I was under the pitlane speed limit and activated it much before the line,” he said. “We also have margin for these occurrences to not go over, so I just hope they can review it properly and give us back the result all of us at the team deserve. It’s certainly unusual that so many drivers and teams were caught out by it today, so something clearly is not right.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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