Pierre Gasly penalty admission debunks F1 fan theories about wild Monaco GP celebrations
The truth about whether Pierre Gasly was aware of his post-race Monaco Grand Prix penalty has come to light.
Pierre Gasly celebrated his third place at the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix on the cooldown lap despite knowing he was going to lose the position.
The Alpine driver started ninth and worked his way up the order to finish a brilliant third on the road, only to be stripped of a Monaco podium due to being hit with two time penalties for speeding in the pit lane.
Gasly was one of five drivers who were punished for exceeding Monaco’s 60km/h pit lane speed limit, with a combined 10-second penalty dropping the Frenchman from third to seventh after the chequered flag.
Gasly was seen celebrating wildly from the cockpit of his car during the cool down lap as he repeatedly punched the air. This prompted fans to speculate online that Alpine had not informed Gasly of his impending penalty.
However, Gasly’s post-race comments confirmed he was aware that he would lose third place, but celebrated anyway.
"I knew the situation when we stopped for the red flag and I just tried to push as hard as I could to maximise the end result, knowing the penalty was going to be applied,” Gasly said.
Alpine has requested a right of review from the FIA for the penalties dished out to Gasly.
Shortly after the race, Alpine confirmed in a statement: “After the result of today's Monaco Grand Prix, BWT Alpine Formula One Team can confirm it has requested a Right of Review from the FIA following the penalties applied for pit lane speeding.”
Gasly said he was “heartbroken” by the outcome and hopes the FIA will give back the result he felt was deserved.
“I am absolutely heartbroken by the outcome of today's race,” he said.
“I have so many emotions right now, not only after such a challenging weekend where you are on the limit so often and pushing so much, but also to have a lifelong dream of a Monaco podium taken away from me for reasons which I just cannot comprehend.
“I know I was under the pit lane speed limit and activated it much before the line. We also have margin for these occurrences to not go over, so I just hope they can review it properly and give us back the result all of us at the team deserve. It's certainly unusual that so many drivers and teams were caught out by it today so something clearly is not right.”
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