The Spaniard completed Sunday’s race in 0.33 position however was once demoted to fourth when he was once passed a post-race 10-second penalty for an infringement as he attempted to serve an previous five-second penalty in a pit forestall.
The stewards judged {that a} mechanic touched the automobile with a rear tire jack sooner than the 5 seconds had elapsed and so the penalty had now not been served appropriately.
That passed 0.33 position to Mercedes’ George Russell who described the penalty as “harsh”.
Aston Martin, then again, introduced an enchantment, prompting the FIA to opposite their determination.
“Having reviewed the new evidence, we concluded that there was no clear agreement, as was suggested to the stewards previously, that could be relied upon to determine that parties had agreed that a jack touching a car would amount to working on the car,” the FIA stated in a observation.
“In the circumstances, we considered that our original decision to impose a penalty on Car 14 (Alonso) needed to be reversed and we did so accordingly.”
The two-time champion had incurred the unique penalty when he took the lead on the first nook of the 50-lap race, however began from an wrong place, too some distance to the left in his grid slot.
Alonso had seemed unperturbed when he was once to start with stripped of 0.33 after he had seemed at the podium with race winner Sergio Perez and his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen and within the post-race interviews.
“I’m not too upset,” he stated. “It was good and it doesn’t hurt much. I was on the podium, I took the pictures, I got the trophy. I celebrated with the champagne.”
The 41-year-old blamed the FIA for the mishandling of the penalty.
“You can’t apply the penalty 35 laps after the pit-stop. They had enough time to inform us. If I knew about the penalty, I would have had 11 seconds with the car.”
Even Russell agreed: “That penalty for Fernando was harsh. They deserved a podium finish today,” stated the Briton who went again to fourth.
The pit-lane drawback was once a equivalent infringement to that of Alpine motive force Esteban Ocon who was once given 3 consequences on the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Aston Martin staff’s later enchantment drew consideration to the confusion over the guideline.
Alonso, making his record-increasing 357th race get started, heaped reward on his staff after the race.
“These guys have made a fantastic car, a fantastic execution of the race here and in Bahrain, with the strategy and now two podiums.
“These guys give me energy and I push right through and in qualifying laps too. The Red Bulls are out of succeed in, however the remaining had been in the back of us so I’m proud of that.”