Pierre Gasly has been returned to third place in the Monaco Grand Prix after his Alpine team successfully appealed against a penalty for pit-lane speeding.
The Frenchman was demoted to seventh place after the race by two five-second penalties for exceeding the pit-lane speed limit.
He was one of five drivers to be penalised for this during the race, an unusually high number.
A ‘right of review’ hearing requested by Alpine established that cars could legally drive a shorter distance in the pit lane than officials had used in their calculations.
The stewards accepted Alpine’s argument, backed up by data, that Gasly had never exceeded the 60km/h limit.
The decision is a blow to Mercedes driver George Russell, who was given a drive-through penalty for pit-lane speeding which dropped him from third place at the time to 13th at the finish.
Russell’s Mercedes team, as well as the teams of the other drivers who were penalised, did not object to the decisions, even though they believed their drivers had not exceeded the limit.
Team principal Toto Wolff said Mercedes were looking at what “remedies” might be possible with the FIA for the impact on Russell’s championship challenge, but admitted they were limited on timing and legal issues.
Wolff said: “We just left when we were on the phone to our lawyers. A drive-through is equivalent of 20 seconds of race time. What would that have done to his result?
“Do I think we have a chance to reverse the result? I don’t think so, but we definitely have to give it a go.”