Austria Penalty, Not Only Max. Alonso ‘Sees’ Risk of Disqualification

Sparkling weekend

The Austrian GP weekend left a lot of rubbish in the paddock and also gave the race stewards a lot to work on. The main issue, of course, concerned the Verstappen-Norris duelprotagonists throughout the race and who ended up under the stewards’ scrutiny several times. Even before the contact on the track, in fact, Verstappen had saved himself from a possible unsafe releaserequested by Norris and McLaren for an exit from the pit stop after the first pit stop that had forced the English driver to a slight block. In this case, however, the stewards judged that there were no grounds for punishing the world champion.

Max and Lando punished

In the midst of the duel for the leadership, a few moments before the contact, they arrived instead five second penalty for Norriswho in a previous attack had come in long exceeding the limits of the track in turn 3. Having already received the white warning flag, this maneuver was considered as a further infringement and ‘automatically’ led to the sanction. For the contact that decided the race, however, he was punished with ten seconds penalty and two penalty points Max VerstappenThe Red Bull standard-bearer was deemed “predominantly” responsible for the contact. The sanction however – commensurate with the infringement and the precedents – did not actually cause damage to the #1 orange, who at the end of the GP maintained the fifth place he had collected on the track.

Fernando at risk

Further race penalties – without any penalty points being awarded – were given to Albon and Hamilton for touching the white line when entering the pitlane and to Sergio Perez for exceeding the speed limit in the pitlane. Penalty points instead went to Fernando Alonsoguilty of having caused contact with Zhou’s SauberAlonso was given the same sanction as Verstappen (two penalty points and a ten-second penalty) and the Spaniard is considered in the official document of the federation to be “entirely” responsible for the accident.

This penalty obviously worsens the disciplinary record of the two-time world champion, who is now seriously at risk of disqualification. In fact, just four points separate him from a race ban and Alonso will not have any penalties expiring for the rest of the season. The Aston Martin driver will therefore need to be extra careful to avoid the risk of being left stranded in the remainder of the championship.