19/06/2022
NEWS STORY
Fernando Alonso has been handed a time penalty for weaving during today's Canadian Grand Prix, and as a result drops to 9th position.
Between turns 10 and 12, on the penultimate lap of the race, the Spaniard made repeated changes of direction to defend against Valtteri Bottas who had to lift at one point and briefly lost momentum.
Whilst noting the Spaniard's point that at no stage was any point of Bottas' car alongside his Alpine, the Montreal stewards considered this to be a clear breach of 2 b) of Chapter IV Appendix L of the FIA International Sporting Code and consequently imposed a 5 seconds time penalty in line with that imposed for a similar incident in Australia.
The penalty drops Alonso from 7th to 9th behind the two Alfa Romeos.
In addition to the time penalty, Alonso was given a penalty point bringing his twelve month total up to 6.
Starting from the front row, the Spaniard's race was compromised by the failure to react strategically to the virtual safety cars, and a subsequent engine issue which saw him fall into the clutches of Bottas and the ensuing DRS train that had built up after the safety car period that followed Yuki Tsunoda's accident.
"We had an engine problem on lap 20 where we cut the energy very early on the straights, as soon as we exited the corners," explained the Spaniard at race end.
"It was just a case of trying to survive, trying to get the DRS, driving kamikaze in the corners before the detection, because the DRS was my only safety on the straights after that."