Gasly lands three-place grid penalty for Monaco GP

Pierre Gasly has been given a three-place grid penalty for the Monaco Grand Prix after impeding Romain Grosjean during Q2 of qualifying.

The Red Bull driver will start tomorrow’s race from eighth place – promoting Kevin Magnussen to fifth, Daniel Ricciardo to sixth and Daniil Kvyat to seventh – after blocking Grosjean during his final Q2 run which saw the Haas driver failed to progress through the second session.

Following an FIA stewards investigation, Gasly’s Red Bull team admitted fault for not warning the French driver about Grosjean being on a quick lap. The FIA also confirmed, in order to be consistent with previous penalties, Gasly will serve the same grid drop as Antonio Giovinazzi who was penalised for blocking Nico Hulkenberg during Q1.

“The Stewards reviewed video evidence and heard from the driver of car 10 (Pierre Gasly) and the driver of car 8 (Romain Grosjean) and the team representatives,” an FIA statement read. “The driver of car 8 had to brake hard to avoid colliding with car 10 which was going slowly on a preparation lap and was on the racing line.

“At the time car 8 was clearly the only car on a fast lap in the area and while the Stewards accepted that it was unlikely that the driver of car 10 had any opportunity in that sequence of turns to see car 8, the team admitted that they had failed to give any warning.

“The stewards therefore determined that car 10 unnecessarily impeded car 8 and imposed a three grid place penalty and consistent with past practice imposed one penalty point.”