Fernando Alonso received a drive through penalty which converted to 20 seconds added to the elapsed time in the race and 3 penalty points
Fernando Alonso received a drive through penalty which converted to 20 seconds added to the elapsed time in the race and 3 penalty points
Alonso is demoted to P8. Stroll: P7-> P6 Tsunoda: P8-> P7
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For me this penalty was a bit of a grey area rather than slam-dunk, though I'm fine with it in the end (and I'm a huge Alonso fan). I can see how it qualifies as erratic, though we've seen similar moves before go unpunished and it also looks like Russel is far enough back to have time to react.
I'm torn on this because while driver safety is important I'd also be loathed to lose even more fighting tools, and some amount of trickery like this is a part of duels in racing that I enjoy. Far more than the usual fare of DRS passes on a straight, at least.
Still, the grey area around it is murky waters and while Fernando is usually a master at threading that needle it's probably fair to say he overstepped the line this time.
I am hopeful in saying that most of George's fans would agree he should have not found in this predicament if he reacted properly. On the other hand I absolutely place the blame on Fernando for his behavior, since it's not the first time he pulls moves like this.
I think if Russel had more experience with Alonso's shenanigans he wouldn't have crashed. But I don't think Russell is the only driver in the field that would have reacted poorly there, so I have trouble blaming him for the outcome.
I say this as someone who doesn't particularly like or dislike him (medium talent + medium personality).
Fair enough. The only thing I would like to mention is that George displayed so much talent and potential when he was in Williams, I honestly don't know where the hell it went after his move to Mercedes.