Pierre Gasly loses Monaco podium after McLaren and Red Bull win appeals

McLaren and Red Bull have won their appeals against the result of the Monaco Grand Prix after a controversy over multiple incorrect pit-lane speeding penalties.

The victory means Alpine’s Pierre Gasly loses the podium he was awarded after an appeal by the French team that overturned two five-second penalties.

That means Gasly, who finished third on the road, is dropped back to the seventh place he received in the official results.

Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar is returned to third place and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri fourth, with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad moving up to fifth and sixth.

However, the verdict does not fully address the multiple effects of a series of pit-lane speeding penalties.

These affected the results of many drivers in the race, including Mercedes’ George Russell.

The Briton was dropped out of the points for a penalty he received for not correctly serving a pit-lane speeding penalty.

The court of appeal decision, external rests on its conclusion that the parameters for measuring a limit could not be changed in the midst of a grand prix weekend once competitors had been informed of them.

The discrepancy between the official F1 measurement and the possible shorter distance did not mean that the official measurement was incorrect, the court said.

The finding was that, while it was concluded after the race that a shorter line was possible, “what sporting fairness absolutely precludes is the retrospective replacement, after competitors have calibrated and competed against it, of the common event-wide calibration parameter itself by a different geometric or measurement approach for the purpose of re-adjudicating an individual competitor’s result”.

The controversy arose from the fact that there was a 77-centimetre discrepancy between the officially measured distance of the pit lane and the real shortest route a driver could legally take.

It was established at Alpine’s appeal that Gasly had not exceeded the pit-lane speeding limit by this new measurement, which was why the penalty was overturned.

However, McLaren appealed on the grounds of sporting fairness and their own competitive interests, as Piastri had lost two points as a consequence of the situation.

The Australian was one of the drivers who did serve a five-second pit-lane speeding penalty.

Alpine said in a statement: “While we disagree with the decision, and still fully maintain that car 10 (Gasly) did not exceed the pit-lane speed limit at any point during the race, the team acknowledges the decision of the judging panel from the recent hearing in Paris.

“While the result is not what we had hoped for, as we feel that we have been unjustly punished, the team is firmly focused on continuing to improve its performance on track and remains in a close and very competitive championship fight.”