Pierre Gasly avoids race suspension after his collision with Ocon
The threat of a race suspension was hanging over the Alpine driver for his accident with his teammate, but the FIA decided not to take action.
After the second restart caused by Kevin Magnussen’s crash, which triggered the red flag, there were numerous accidents. Among them were the two Alpine cars, which collided and ended their race against the wall. Pierre Gasly had returned to the track after going off into the gravel, inadvertently hitting his teammate.
The two Alpines were eliminated as a result of this contact, and the duo was subsequently summoned before the stewards for allegedly breaching an article of the FIA International Sporting Code regarding conduct standards. « Causing a collision, repeatedly committing serious errors, or appearing to lack control of the car (such as going off track) will be reported to the stewards and may result in penalties, including disqualification of the driver involved », states the code of conduct.
A penalty would have been particularly costly for Gasly, who already has 10 out of the 12 points required on his racing license to be suspended from one race. In other words, a sanction would have potentially prevented him from racing in the next Grand Prix in Azerbaijan.
Fortunately for him, the FIA has decided not to impose any sanctions, considering it to be an unfortunate racing accident. The stewards heard from the driver of car 10 (Pierre Gasly), the driver of car 31 (Esteban Ocon), a team representative, and examined the data from the positioning system, the video footage, and the in-car video evidence, and determined that it was a first lap racing incident. Both cars acknowledged and accepted this. Under these circumstances, we did not take any further actions.
It is worth noting that Pierre Gasly apologized for this mistake, according to Esteban Ocon’s statements to Sky Sports: « The chaotic restart, I could have collided with anyone because there were many cars leaving. Obviously, Pierre didn’t leave me much space, but there is no grudge. He came to apologize, and as I said, it could have been anyone. »
The Frenchman added feeling good despite the shock. « I have a little bit of a headache. The blow was tough, but I’ll be fine. I am stronger than that, so I will survive. »
