The FIA has disqualified Pierre Gasly from F1 Azerbaijan GP qualifying after the delegate found discrepancy with its fuel mass flow.
Post the end of F1 Azerbaijan GP qualifying, the FIA stewards summoned Alpine’s Gasly for breach of Article 5.2.3 of the Technical Regulations for ‘exceedance of the instantaneous fuel mass flow’, which states that the ‘fuel mass flow must not exceed 100kg/h’.
Gasly qualified a good 13th after a troubled Friday. His teammate Esteban Ocon did not enjoy any bit to end up 20th. The former gave some hope with his performance to make it into the Top 10, but that will now be a big ask for the French outfit.
After looking into the matter, the FIA decided to disqualify Gasly from the qualifying result to put him on the back of the grid alongside Ocon and Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu. As a result, five drivers will immediately gain places and most crucially Lando Norris will.
The Brit was knocked out in Q1 and he will gain a place along with Nico Hulkenberg, Lance Stroll, Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas. The FIA agreed with Alpine that the momentary fuel flow exceedance was due to technical fault.
But the norm with such infringements is direct disqualification which is the case with Gasly. The FIA stewards have allowed him to start the grand prix from the back. “The Stewards heard from the team representatives of Car 10 (Pierre Gasly), including the Sporting Director and the Engineer involved, and the FIA Technical Delegate along with the FIA Engineers managing the measurements and data from the car,” it said.
“The driver was summoned to give him the opportunity to provide a defence, but did not attend the hearing. The Technical Delegate reported that Car 10 exceeded the permitted 100Kg/h fuel mass flow on the final timed lap of Q2. The team representatives explained that they had an unexpected short duration technical fault that raised the fuel mass flow greater than expected in a transient fashion.
“The cause was agreed by the FIA technical staff. That the fuel mass flow was greater than the limit at that moment was not disputed by the competitor. The competitor demonstrated to the Stewards that the technical fault resulted in a slower lap time and that no performance advantage was obtained at that moment.
“Thus, they argue, this should be taken into mitigation. They also noted that the great rarity of breaches of this article demonstrates that this is not part of their strategy, and that the scale of the transient simply exceeded the margin they maintain to prevent a beach. The usual penalty for a breach of the technical regulations is disqualification and the Stewards note that Article 1.3.3 of the International Sporting Code states “If an Automobile is found not to comply with the applicable technical regulations, it shall be no defence to claim that no performance advantage was obtained.”
“In addition to the Code this has long been the position of the International Court of Appeal. Thus, the Stewards apply the usual penalty and disqualify the car and driver from the classification of qualifying. The Stewards hereby gives the car permission to start the race.”
Here’s how F1 Azerbaijan GP qualifying panned out
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