“Undershoot!”: Alpine repeatedly warned Gasly not to break speed limit again | Formula 1

Pierre Gasly was unable to avoid being caught speeding in the pits twice in Monaco despite his team warning him before both infringements.

The Alpine driver collected a pair of five-second time penalties during the race which dropped him from third place to seventh in the final classification. However this is subject to a Right of Review request which Alpine submitted after the race.

Four other drivers collected five-second penalties for pit lane speeding infringements. Gasly was the only one to receive two. While all the other penalties occured during routine pit stops under normal racing conditions, Gasly incurred his second when the entire field was instructed to drive through the pit lane under the first Safety Car period.

Alpine warned Gasly about the potential risk of a penalty before he received his first penalty. The team became concerned after George Russell was the first driver to be caught speeding:

Within six laps of his pit stop, the stewards penalised Gasly for speeding. However at that stage Alpine were optimistic that as long as he preserved his lead over Liam Lawson and did not have to pit again he would not lose a position when the penalty was applied post-race.

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The Alpine strategists were alert to the possibility that a Safety Car appearance could disrupt their plan, as it would bring others closer to Gasly. They warned him he should avoid making a pit stop as he would have to serve his penalty if he did – the very trap Russell and Mercedes fell into.

When Lance Stroll crashed at Anthony Noghes, Gasly’s race engineer reminded him they needed to avoid making a pit stop.

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The field was directed through the pit lane while Stroll’s car was recovered. Gasly did not pit and Alpine reminded him to take extra care to avoid exceeding the pit lane speed limit again.

However it proved to no avail. Not only did Gasly collect a second penalty, he broke the 60kph limit by an even greater amount: 0.4kph instead of 0.1kph. No other driver incurred a penalty at this point.

Charles Leclerc crashed immediately at the same corner as Stroll when the race restarted, leading to a second Safety Car appearance. The field again had to tour through the pits and Peckett informed his unhappy driver they had been “caught” breaking the speed limit.

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The stewards announced Gasly’s penalty during the subsequent red flag. He therefore knew when he got back into his car he had two five-second time penalties to serve after the race.

Given the proximity of Isack Hadjar, Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson behind him when he took the chequered flag it would have been obvious to Gasly he was extremely unlikely to hold onto his third place.

He appeared to feign celebration of his podium finish, but Peckett told him to wait, and any further discussions which might have passed between them were not broadcast. Gasly did not park at the third place board when he returned to the pit area, so he clearly understood he was not on his way to the rostrum.

Despite his apparent celebrations, Gasly also appeared in a hurry to get back, and arrived at Massenet so quickly he had to brake hard to avoid Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari ahead of him.

Alpine has brought a Right of Review request over the incident. If one of his post-race penalties was removed he would move up to fifth place in the final classification, and if both were removed he would be reinstated to third place.

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