McLaren launch appeal against Gasly penalty reverse

McLaren have lodged an appeal against the decision to overturn Alpine driver Pierre Gasly's pit-lane speeding penalty at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Alpine won a right of appeal review against the penalty and the Frenchman has been reinstalled in third place, having been demoted to seventh.

Governing body the FIA established in the Alpine hearing that the pit-lane speed limit had been miscalculated at Monaco.

A McLaren statement said: "This case raises important questions concerning sporting fairness, regulatory consistency and the integrity of competition.

"Throughout the Monaco Grand Prix weekend – and in every event - all teams operated according to the regulations and established standard practices for what concerns the speed limit in the pit lane as they were applied at the time.

"Competitors adjusted their procedures accordingly and, where required, accepted and served penalties imposed under those regulations.

"In our view, the subsequent removal of penalties creates a situation in which some competitors are disadvantaged by having acted in accordance with the rules and the Stewards' decisions.

"Such an outcome risks creating sporting inequity and undermining confidence in the consistent application of the FIA sporting regulations."

The Gasly hearing turned on the evidence that drivers could drive a shorter route along the pit lane than F1 and the FIA used to measure the speed limit.

McLaren's Oscar Piastri was one of four further drivers who were given pit-lane speeding penalties and lost positions as a result.

The Australian was demoted to fifth from fourth with the removal of Gasly's penalty.

McLaren's decision to lodge a notification of appeal with the FIA Court of Appeal takes the case to the governing body's highest legal authority.

Hamilton and Gasly's team-mate Franco Colapinto were the other drivers to be found guilty of pit-lane speeding.

All but one of the penalties was for going 0.1km/h over the speed limit; one of Gasly's was for a 0.4km/h transgression.

Ferrari managed to avoid Hamilton suffering for his penalty as it was served during a safety-car period. Piastri lost at least one place - to Gasly - when he served his. Colapinto was in any case out of the points.

The stewards' verdict in Alpine's 'right of review' case into Gasly's penalty acknowledged that the pit lane had been measured as being 77m longer than it was possible to drive it.

As the limit is measured by the time it takes for drivers to travel a certain distance, it incorrectly calculated drivers as speeding when in fact none had exceeded the 60km/h limit.

The report also said that after the third penalty was awarded in the race, the stewards asked officials whether something unusual was going on, and were told nothing was

This was despite the issue having been raised with governing body the FIA during the weekend by teams. Their pleas were ignored, and the conversations were, it seems, not passed to the stewards, nor to the timekeepers.

The decision to expunge Gasly's penalty demoted Red Bull's Isack Hadjar from the podium, and Piastri from fourth to fifth.

Red Bull have not yet handed the third-place trophy to Gasly while they also consider whether to appeal against the decision to overturn his penalty.