Pierre Gasly finally receives Monaco GP trophy after Alpine penalty appeal

Pierre Gasly has finally got his hands on his third-place trophy from the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Alpine driver originally crossed the line third at the race around the streets of Monte Carlo in early June. However, two separate five-second time penalties for speeding in the pitlane demoted him to seventh in the final classification. As a result, Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar was promoted to the third spot on the podium. 

Refusing to accept the penalty, Alpine launched a successful ‘Right of Review’. The Enstone outfit was able to provide evidence that had not been available to the stewards at the time, which showed there was a 77cm discrepancy in the pitlane timing loop measurements. Gasly’s podium was reinstated.

As Hadjar had originally celebrated on the podium in the principality and collected the third-place trophy, the Milton Keynes outfit had to return the trophy to Gasly.

“Monaco trophy found its way home!!! Happyyyy day, happy life!!” the Frenchman wrote on Instagram as he posed with the silverware.

While Gasly has got his hands on the trophy, the story is far from over. As the 30-year-old was not the only driver to be hit with a pitlane speeding penalty, McLaren and Red Bull are pressing ahead with appeals regarding the FIA’s handling of the reinstated classification.

The issue that has arisen from the reinstated podium is that the other drivers who had received the same penalty had served them during the race, meaning their race strategies were altered as a result, and the penalties cannot be reversed.

Drivers who were also affected by the penalties were McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Mercedes’ George Russell.

Mercedes had also questioned the decision to reinstate Gasly’s podium, but later withdrew its challenge. “Following the decision to rescind Pierre Gasly’s time penalty, it was important for us to explore all available options to address the impact of George’s pitlane speeding penalty on his race result,” a statement from the Brackley outfit read.

“We had a limited time window in which to apply for the Right of Review during the race weekend in Barcelona, and did so in order to reserve our position in this regard.

“Our subsequent collaborative discussion with FIA and Formula One has shown their determination to review the unique circumstances arising from the Monaco Grand Prix and to proactively address the factors that caused them.

 “In the face of this clear determination, we have concluded that further pursuit of our Right of Review application will not serve our team or the sport and thus we have withdrawn our submission.”

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