Pierre Gasly hits back at rivals over Monaco podium appeal row

Pierre Gasly is not going to give up his Monaco podium without a fight, as he says Alpine’s rivals could’ve also forgone serving their penalties to pave the way for a Right of Review.

Especially, says the Frenchman, if like Alpine, they knew they had done nothing wrong.

Pierre Gasly defends Monaco podium Right of Review

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Gasly was penalised for speeding in the pit lane at the Monaco Grand Prix, two of his tours through the pit lane recorded at 60.1 km/h and 60.4 km/h.

The two five-second penalties were added to his time at the chequered flag, which meant he dropped from third to seventh place.

Alpine lodged a Right of Review, with Thursday’s hearing resulting in Gasly’s penalties being rescinded as Formula One Management revealed the distance used in the calculation was “inaccurate and overstated the speed” that Gasly had been travelling. He regained third place.

Gasly’s reinstatement was a blow for Isack Hadjar, who had inherited third place as a result of the Alpine driver’s penalties, while Oscar Piastri, Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad each lost a position and its points.

For Piastri it was a double blow as the McLaren driver was one of the five drivers penalised for speeding in the pit lane, and he served his penalty during the Grand Prix. That cost him positions on the track, and it also meant McLaren could not appeal after the race.

Piastri was not impressed by the decision to rescind Gasly’s penalties.

“I’m pretty mind blown by the decision, because how you can reverse a decision – that was ultimately wrong – but, when other people have been penalised for the same thing and served the penalty in the race,” he said.

Mercedes confirmed on Sunday that it had requested a Right of Review as George Russell’s race was undone by his speeding penalty. Meanwhile, PlanetF1.com reported on Friday that McLaren and Red Bull have indicated an intent to appeal the stewards’ decision to rescind the penalties.

Gasly, though, feels that would not be fair as Alpine decided not to pit him during the race in order to request the Right of Review as the team knew that Gasly had done nothing wrong.

“I’m just going to make something clear,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media.

“I know what we did. I know we were driving at 59 km/h in the pit lane and we’ve been accused of driving over 60, which wasn’t the case.

“So I think what I’m going to say is that it should not be right to penalise me for something that we haven’t done just because others got penalised.

“If a potential mistake was done once, twice, three times, is there a reason to do it a fourth time? So I think just to draw the line here.

“And then second point is, I actually don’t know whether Oscar or George over-sped or not.

“I haven’t seen their data. I don’t know if it’s the same issue as we’ve had. And based on that, I cannot comment.

“Obviously, if they didn’t, then that’s a big shame. They obviously lost out. And yeah, I mean, I’m not for that.”

More on the Pierre Gasly penalty

Monaco GP controversy far from over as Pierre Gasly verdict sparks fallout

Gasly podium under new threat as rivals prepare to appeal

But at the end of it all, Alpine made the call not to pit Gasly, and it proved to be the right decision.

“For sure, I think the situation we are facing is, as a team, we decided not to box a second time, change the tyre, not to serve the penalty, because we knew that we didn’t do anything wrong, and we were going to protest it.

“I think the fact that it was a slightly different situation might be different.

“But at the end of the day, I think for the sport, fair play to FIA and F1. I think when you make a mistake and you know, they took their responsibilities, and in the end they did well to overturn their decision, because in the end we did nothing wrong.

“I think on my side, all I can say is we did a good quali, overtook Norris at the start, found ourselves in P5 at the second start, we overtook Hadjar on track, and then yeah, from that fact we crossed the line in P3 so I don’t think it was fair to be put in P7 when we did nothing wrong there.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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