Spaniard allowed to keep fifth position ahead of Di Resta
and Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso has escaped punishment for his
controversial pass on Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne during the Abu Dhabi GP.
With ten laps of the race remaining, the Ferrari driver
rejoined the track following his final pitstop alongside the ongoing Vergne and
swept past the Frenchman with all four wheels of the F138 over the designated
track limits.
However, the stewards have accepted Alonso's explanation
that he had no option but to take to the run-off area and decided against
meting out a retrospective drive-through penalty which would have added on 25
seconds to Alonso's race time and demoted him from fifth to ninth.
"While Car 3 [Alonso] did leave the track at Turn
3-4 the stewards believe that he had no choice, was Car 18 [Vergne] closed on
him," the FIA statement confirming that no further action would be taken
stated.
"Car 18 was at the end of his stint with worn tyres
and was fully committed to the Turn as Car 3 exited the pits. Telemetry
confirms that Car 3 was significantly faster, on option tyres, and had the
advantage throughout the sequence.
"The drivers' explanations were completely clear.
Therefore the Stewards determine that neither car could avoid the incident, and
no advantage was gained as a result of the incident."
Speaking before the verdict was issued, Alonso said:
"You have to leave a space when you have a car alongside. "He didn't
give a space and I had to go outside of the track."
The decision, which sees Alonso keep his fifth place
ahead of Force India's Paul di Resta and Lewis Hamilton, could prove critical
in Ferrari's ongoing battle to finish second in the Constructors' Championship.
The Scuderia currently trail Mercedes by eleven points in the standings with
two races of the season remaining
Culledf from Skysports
0 comments:
Post a Comment