Pierre Gasly will drop to the bottom of the top 10 on the grid for Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix after incurring two separate penalties for impeding during qualifying.
Gasly finished fourth during qualifying at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya but faced two post-session investigations for separate cases of impeding.
Gasly was judged to have unnecessarily impeded Carlos Sainz through Turn 13 before also hindering Max Verstappen through Turn 4.
Both instances earned Gasly a three-place grid penalty, meaning he will drop six places, from fourth to 10th.
In the hearings Gasly stated that “he was aware that Car 55 [Sainz] was behind but felt that he could do nothing to avoid impeding because of the high speed delta and the closeness of Car 55 to Car 16 [Charles Leclerc].”
Stewards judged that Gasly could have moved further to the right at the exit of Turn 13 and deemed him culpable.
With the Verstappen hindrance stewards outlined that Alpine “failed to give appropriate warning [to Gasly] of the approach of Car 1 [Verstappen], having told him that the cars behind were on a slow lap.”
Gasly rued the penalties but accepted the decisions.
“It’s a real pity we will not start from the second row tomorrow after the penalty for impeding,” he said.
“I think it was very unfortunate with the traffic, cars so close together and the high-speed final corners. We have to accept it, move on and keep our heads down for tomorrow where I know we can still have a strong race.”
