Alonso Stripped of 100th F1 Podium in Saudi Arabian GP

Fernando Alonso loses his 100th F1 podium after receiving a penalty in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at Jeddah.

Fernando Alonso was stripped of his 100th Formula 1 podium after receiving a penalty from the FIA stewards following the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at Jeddah.

Despite finishing third on the track and celebrating what he and his Aston Martin team believed to be their second podium of the season, doubts were quickly raised.

During the race, Alonso was penalized with a five-second penalty for starting from the wrong grid position, from which he went on to take the lead from eventual race winner Sergio Perez.

After being overtaken by Perez, Alonso made a pit stop under the safety car caused by his teammate Lance Stroll’s retirement and served his penalty. Despite this setback, he managed to hold on to his second place position and ultimately finished in third place after being overtaken by Max Verstappen’s Red Bull towards the end of the race.

As the race neared its conclusion, the Aston Martin team instructed Alonso to maintain a gap of over five seconds ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes, as a precaution in case any additional penalties were to be imposed.

It has since been determined that Alonso did not serve his penalty correctly, resulting in a 10-second penalty being applied to his race time instead of the original five-second penalty. This penalty had a significant impact on Alonso’s final race result, dropping him down the order to 14th place.

As a result of the 10-second penalty, Alonso was pushed down to 14th place, which put him behind George Russell’s Mercedes. However, he managed to maintain his fourth-place position ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, despite the penalty.

While the exact nature of the pit stop infringement is not yet clear, it appears that a crew member may have touched Alonso’s AMR23 before the penalty had been fully served.

According to the regulations, team members are not allowed to touch the car during the serving of a time penalty, and it appears that the rear jack may have made contact with the car before the penalty was complete.

This would constitute a violation of the rules and may have contributed to the subsequent penalty that was applied to Alonso’s race time.

George Russell’s podium finish in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was his 10th in Formula 1 and marked Mercedes’ first silverware of the season.

The team has struggled with the performance of its W14 car, and has already confirmed that it will be making significant revisions to the car after feeling that the concept of the car was flawed. Despite this disappointing start to the season, Russell’s podium finish represents a significant achievement for the young driver, who is widely seen as one of the rising stars of the sport.

Alonso Stripped of 100th F1 Podium in Saudi Arabian GP Alonso Stripped of 100th F1 Podium in Saudi Arabian GP Alonso Stripped of 100th F1 Podium in Saudi Arabian GP

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