Furious Gasly drops to 13th after contact with Force India, Perez takes a point in 10th; No further action on Grosjean-Sainz
Thursday 6 December 2018 15:36, UK
An angry Pierre Gasly has branded his five-second penalty for colliding with Sergio Perez at the British GP as "ridiculous".
As a result of the ruling against Toro Rosso's Frenchman, the Force India driver was promoted to 10th place.
The duo were fighting for the position, and a single championship point, on the penultimate lap at Silverstone as they entered Club but Gasly made contact with Perez as he attempted a pass.
And though Gasly made the overtake stick in his Toro Rosso, race stewards have ruled that he was "wholly or predominantly to blame" for the hit, and "while the collision was light it led directly to the pass".
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The penalty means Gasly has been demoted to 13th place, below Perez, Stoffel Vandoorne and Lance Stroll.
But in a post on his social media account, Gasly described the penalty as "ridiculous" and added:
"Every weekends there are contacts with no further action, that's part of racing & what makes it exciting! Was close battle, I enjoyed it. Just let us race and stop all this bull**** with penalties! Will keep fighting."
The full stewards' verdict
"The stewards felt that Gasly's manoeuvres were generally reasonable and that he was attempting to make a good racing pass. Perez left his sufficient room throughout.
"However, Gasly touched the sausage kerb at the apex of turn 16 which caused him to collide with Perez. This subsequently forced Perez off the track on driver's left before turn 17 and severely compromised his ability to race through turns 17 and 18, and Gasly was thus able to pass Perez.
"The stewards determined that Gasly was wholly or predominantly to blame, and while the collision was light it led directly to the pass. Therefore the stewards ordered a five-second penalty."
Grosjean and Sainz escape penalty
There was no further action, meanwhile, for Romain Grosjean and Carlos Sainz for their high-speed crash at Copse.
Sainz went around the outside of the Haas but Grosjean didn't have much room as he tried to turn in on the inside, clattering into the Renault with both cars then spinning into the barriers.
The drivers, the stewards say, agreed that it was a racing incident.
"Car 55 had a run on the outside of car 8 going into the very fast turn 9," they noted. "While the driver of car 55 did slightly tighten his line towards the apex, the drivers agreed that this was not the entire reason for the incident.
"The driver of car 8 explained that he had braked, where he would not normally brake, at the entry of the turn to avoid an incident, but as soon as his front wing was in the turbulence from car 55 he had a slight understeer and as the cars were very close they made contact and subsequently both cars crashed.
"The drivers agreed that it was a racing incident and the stewards determined that neither was wholly or predominantly at fault, and took No Further Action."
