Bitter disappointment for Pierre Gasly: The Alpine driver was disqualified from qualifying on Saturday evening! After Gasly started 13th in Baku, his car failed the technical inspection. The reason: In the second part of qualifying, the Alpine car exceeded the permitted fuel flow limit of 100 kilograms per hour.
Gasly was then disqualified on Saturday evening, but is allowed to start the race from last place. “I’m pretty happy with the result of today’s qualifying,” said the Frenchman. “It’s a shame, of course, that we were disqualified because of a small infringement with the fuel supply.”
During their visit to the stewards, Alpine’s engineers explained that the brief infringement was a technical defect that was so minor that it did not result in any performance advantage. However, the stewards were of the opinion that this was not a reason to reduce the usual penalty of disqualification.
Alpine in Baku with many problems
The difficult weekend in Baku continues for Alpine: Esteban Ocon’s car had to have its engine changed on Friday. In the third practice session, the fuel pump finally failed and in qualifying, the Frenchman ended up in last place on the grid after contact with the wall.
Ocon is now joined at the back of the field by his teammate, while Guanyu Zhou (Sauber) is also relegated after an engine penalty. After experiencing “the most difficult Friday of the year”, Gasly was initially able to make peace with his qualifying result.
“It was amazing. I thought I would finish 17th and 18th, but I ended up 13th. I can’t ask for much more than that,” said the Frenchman happily before he learned of the disqualification. “It was an extremely difficult weekend from the first practice session onwards, I just couldn’t get the car to work.”
“We made some changes and everything we did went in the right direction,” summed up Gasly, speaking of a “positive” result. “Of course I would have liked to be further up the field, but with the car we had and compared to the others, I think we did the absolute best. That’s why I’m happy.”
Gasly starts from the back of the field
Ocon has barely been able to drive because of the problems with his Alpine. “If you miss two sessions on a street circuit, you can’t build up confidence and set up the car properly on a weekend like that, and we missed that,” the Frenchman regrets.
“You take full risks and you can’t really tell if you’ve reached the limit or not. It wasn’t the first time I touched the wall, but this time luck didn’t seem to be on our side because the tire came off.”
The two Alpine drivers will not have it easy in the race either: While Ocon will start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from 18th place due to the penalties against Gasly and Zhou, his teammate Gasly will have to start last.
The verdict of disqualification in full
“The Stewards heard from representatives of the team of car 10 (Pierre Gasly), including the sporting director and the engineer involved, as well as the FIA Technical Delegate and the FIA engineers who manage the car’s measurements and data.”
“The driver was summoned to give him the opportunity to defend himself, but he did not attend the hearing. The Technical Delegate reported that car 10 had exceeded the permitted fuel mass flow of 100 kg/h on the last timed lap.”
“Team representatives explained that they had experienced an unexpected, short-term technical failure which caused the fuel mass flow to temporarily increase more than expected. The cause has been confirmed by FIA technical staff.”
“The fact that the fuel mass flow was above the limit at that time was not disputed by the participant. The participant proved to the stewards that the technical defect led to a slower lap time and that no performance advantage was achieved at that time. This should therefore be taken into account as a mitigating factor.”
“They also pointed out that the great rarity of violations of this article showed that this had not been part of their strategy and that the extent of the defect had simply exceeded the margin of manoeuvre they had maintained to avoid a shutdown.”
“The usual penalty for a breach of the technical regulations is disqualification and the Stewards point out that Article 1.3.3 of the International Sporting Code states: ‘If a car is found not to comply with the applicable technical regulations, it cannot be claimed that no performance advantage has been gained.'”
“In addition to the regulations, this has long been the position of the International Court of Appeal. The stewards therefore impose the usual penalty and exclude the car and driver from the qualifying results.”
Source: www.sport.de
