Gasly penalized, loses point for 10th place

The Frenchman received a five-second penalty for touching Sergio Pérez and taking the opportunity to overtake him in the final laps at Silverstone.

Published on 08/07/2018 à 20:11

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In the excitement of the final laps of the British Grand Prix, the incident almost went unnoticed. Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso) and Sergio Pérez (Force India) fought a tough battle to gain 10th place, with the Frenchman even touching the Mexican at the Vale chicane.

Winner of this duel, the 2 GP2016 Series champion was nevertheless penalized by five seconds on Sunday evening. He thus lost the benefit of his 10th position, and fell to 13th place, behind Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) and Lance stroll (Williams).

The stewards considered that the Frenchman had obtained this place thanks to the collision. “It was generally reasonable (in his piloting) and he tried to perform a correct maneuver” according to the press release from the International Automobile Federation (FIA), but “he is mainly to blame” in the incident.

“This hit forced Pérez to go off the track, and greatly compromised his trajectory in the following turns. The collision led directly to overtaking. »

Sergio Pérez was delighted with this decision. “I gave him enough space, but we are under affected. I think this maneuver was irregular. I'm happy that the FIA penalized Gasly, which allows me to take the point (from 10th place),” explains the Force India driver.

The tricolor did not see the slightest harm in his piloting. “It’s racing, that’s what I like about racing, the close battles. When I attacked him, I didn't expect to hit him. »

Discover the analysis of the British GP carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2173 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.