Fernando Alonso doubts Max Verstappen would have misplaced his pole place on the Qatar Grand Prix had he held up one other driver in qualifying, similar to himself.
Verstappen was given a one-place grid penalty after the stewards dominated he obstructed George Russell as they ready to start their closing laps. Alonso, who has beforehand claimed F1’s stewards usually tend to take a British driver’s aspect, believes Russell’s nationality influenced the choice to penalise Verstappen.
“Typically once they apply a rule or penalty to somebody, then why we don’t observe that path?” requested Alonso. “Within the subsequent race it isn’t relevant anymore, relying typically which nationality you’re.”
He urged Russell wouldn’t have acquired the identical penalty Alonso incurred in Australia, whether or not the stewards penalised him 20 seconds for a “probably harmful” transfer whereas being pursued by the Mercedes driver.
“If I do [the same as Russell] I cannot obtain the identical profit as George did most likely there. Or possibly my incident in Australia – contactless 30 metres away from me, somebody goes off observe and I get a penalty. Typically you marvel in case you swap the positions and you’re the different man, if you’ll have the identical remedy. That’s what I say typically.”
Alonso was one in every of three drivers who overtook Verstappen on the lap when he was penalised, together with Russell.
Nico Hulkenberg stated he was additionally stunned by Verstappen’s penalty. “I don’t perceive it both,” he stated. “In Qatar there was a variety of completely different run profiles, folks doing all types of various stuff. It’s very straightforward to get tousled.
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“However we drivers know that too and I feel we additionally need to construct that in and go away some buffer. I don’t perceive why Max obtained a penalty there.”
Verstappen accused Russell of “mendacity” throughout the stewards’ assembly and attempting to impress a penalty for him.
Nevertheless Russell claimed Verstappen adopted a hostile strategy from the beginning of the assembly. “We went into the stewards and for the primary 5 minutes I didn’t say a phrase as a result of they have been solely speaking to Max and he was already offended and swearing on the stewards,” he stated.
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