Piastri 'pretty mind-blown' by overturned penalty

Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, With Pierre Gasly's third place reinstated, Oscar Piastri moves back level on 58 points with McLaren team-mate Lando Norris in the drivers' championship F1 CorrespondentPublished10 minutes agoMcLaren's Oscar Piastri said he was "pretty mind-blown" about the decision to overturn Pierre Gasly's penalty for pit-lane speeding in the Monaco Grand Prix. Gasly was returned to third place in the race after initially being dropped to seventh following a successful appeal by his Alpine team. But the stewards' verdict revealed an error with measuring the pit-lane speed limit. This affected a number of other drivers, who were also penalised. "I'm pretty mind-blown by the decision," Piastri said, "because how you can reverse a decision that was ultimately wrong, but when other people have been penalised for the same thing and served a penalty in the race, how you can then change one penalty, knowing that probably five or six other races have been impacted by that, is astonishing." Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, George Russell was given a drive-through penalty for failing to properly serve his pit-lane speeding penalty Gasly and Piastri were two of five drivers penalised for breaking the pit-lane speed limit. The others were Mercedes' George Russell, Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Gasly's team-mate Franco Colapinto. All but one of the penalties was for going 0.1km/h over the speed limit; one of Gasly's was for a 0.4km/h transgression. Russell ended up being demoted to 12th place from third after picking up a drive-through penalty, a punishment for not correctly serving his speeding punishment at a pit stop. That cost him 15 points in his title fight with team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who won the race. The Briton urged stewards during a red-flag period not to impose the drive-through and deal with it after the race because there was obviously something odd going on, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Ferrari managed to avoid Hamilton suffering for his penalty as it was served during a safety-car period. Piastri lost at least one place - to Gasly - when he served his. Colapinto was in any case out of the points. The stewards' verdict in Alpine's 'right of review' case into Gasly's penalty acknowledged that the pit lane had been measured as being longer than it was possible to drive it. As the limit is measured by the time it takes for drivers to travel a certain distance, it incorrectly calculated drivers as speeding when in fact none had exceeded the 60km/h limit. The report also said that after the third penalty was awarded in the race, the stewards asked officials whether something unusual was going on, and were told nothing was. This was despite the issue having been raised with governing body the FIA during the weekend by teams. The decision to expunge Gasly's penalty demoted Red Bull's Isack Hadjar from the podium, and Piastri from fourth to fifth. Image source, EPAImage caption, George Russell headed to stewards' room during the red-flag period at last weekend's Monaco Grand Prix to ask if they could review his penalties after the race Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren have all given notice of an intention to appeal against the Gasly decision. Piastri added: "I've obviously lost a position, but you can only imagine how George is feeling - so I could not believe my eyes. "Yes, I lost the position to Pierre because I served the penalty, so technically I should be P3. But then, technically George should be P3, and the whole thing is now a mess. "[It's] quite the predicament they've got themselves into, and I don't know how you get yourself out of that one, because now the precedent is 'you don't serve the penalty, you take it to court, you wait probably a few months to decide the race', and who the hell wants to go racing like that? "Before you could kind of say: 'Bad luck, it was wrong, but it was wrong for everybody, and everyone was treated the same.' "Now it's very much how you judge that. I don't think the race result will be cancelled, but yes, it's quite the situation that's unfolded." Gasly said: "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 one time, two times, three times, it's not a reason to do it a fourth time. So I think just to draw the line here." An F1 statement said: "We measured the relevant areas in the pit lane identically to the 2025 event and followed procedures in the usual way. "However, the process has identified a measurement discrepancy. Like everyone in the sport we strive for the best results and, as always, any improvements or refinements that are identified as being required in light of this situation will be implemented." Fight is on for Hamilton as he and Russell reset successfully Published1 hour agoRussell beats Hamilton to Barcelona pole Published3 hours agoWhat's going to happen next?Merced

Piastri 'pretty mind-blown' by overturned penalty

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