As Alonso was third, he wasn’t and then he was again. Poor performance from the FIA, he was angry before they erased his penalty

And he’s right. What actually happened in the night race in Jeddah? Everything was to blame for the start and Alonso’s bad position on the grid. He drove a few centimeters outside the marked box on the left lap, and even though he overtook the winning Sergio Pérez in the first lap, he received a five-second penalty for that mistake. Strictly, but correctly.

On the 18th lap, when the safety car came out, Alonso and a number of other drivers headed to the pits and, as the rules dictate, the Aston Martin car was idle for five seconds, so that the driver could serve out the penalty.

And here it came. Already in the live broadcast, it was seen that the mechanic with the rear jack touched the car, however, the commissioners did not act in any way, nor did they note any possible wrongdoing.

Only 13 minutes after reaching the finish line – and quite possibly at the instigation of Mercedes – they started an investigation, in order to add an additional ten seconds to Alonso after another seven minutes, depriving him of the jubilee 100th podium. “To be honest, I’m not even sorry. I was on the steps, took a picture, got an award and celebrated with champagne. And now I seem to be down three points. But today it was about the poor performance of the FIA, not so much about my disappointment. You can’t punish someone after more than 30 rounds! They had enough time to investigate and tell me about the punishment. If they did, I would have room to increase my lead to stay third,” Alonso said.

And he didn’t stop at criticism. “You have almost 35 laps to give and report the punishment. If you wait until after the ceremony, then there is something wrong with the system and it is primarily wrong with the fans. The show is suffering.”

However, the Aston Martin team appealed the punishment after a few hours. Although the FIA ​​claims that while the penalty is being served in the pits, no work is allowed on the car and even just touching the jack is considered work, however the team pointed out that there is no such agreement. And above all, she presented seven records from previous years, when the contact of the jack with the car remained unpunished. So the FIA ​​revised its decision and returned Alonso back to third place.

George Russell also agreed with the verdict. “I don’t know what happened during his pit stop, but another ten seconds seems too extreme as a penalty. It was a very severe punishment for Fernando, he deserved to be on the podium.”

And the Mercedes pilot also defended his opponent for his starting offense. Esteban Ocon already received a similar penalty in the first race, however, standing on the grid almost exactly within a centimeter is no easy feat. “We sit very low, we can’t see the ground at all and certainly not the white lines that determine your lateral position. Fernando gained no advantage at all from this and the five seconds are strict. We should start using common sense on this,” Russell said.

The FIA ​​has already promised that at least the contradictory rules on how to properly serve the penalty in the pits will be unified by the next race in Australia.