Protest of Fernando Alonso's car in the United States Grand Prix takes a new twist as the Spaniard's 7th place finish is reinstated.

Despite the stewards decision earlier that Alpine's protest against the penalty was inadmissible, the French team persisted with a "right of review" into Haas' original protest, claiming that it was lodged outside the permitted time, 24 minutes to be precise.

A further hearing has now found in favour of the French team and reinstated Alonso's result.

"BWT Alpine F1 Team thanks the FIA stewards for convening and reaching a positive conclusion on the matter involving Car #14 from last weekend's United States Grand Prix," said Alpine in a brief statement.

"The team welcomes the decision made by the aforementioned stewards, whereby Car #14 reinstates its seventh place finish and six points from the race.

"We look forward to continuing our collaborative work alongside the FIA to ensure the racing spectacle is maintained to the highest quality.

"The team now looks forward to competing this weekend at the Mexico City Grand Prix."

Despite upholding Alpine's appeal, the stewards admitted concern that Alonso had been "permitted to remain on track with a mirror assembly hanging loose which finally fell off", and recommended procedures be put in place for monitoring and that "where necessary" there is a requirement for the issues to be rectified, which is currently what happens.

This could be done, they claimed, via a radio call to the team or the displaying of the black and orange flag "requiring the car to return to the pits for the problem to be repaired".

Alpine's main argument related to Haas' late submission of its protest which was against the rules of the International Sporting Code, and while the code allows stewards to accept protests after the deadline if it is "impossible" for them to be made on time, the French team insisted that Haas could have lodged its protest earlier.

"The stewards accept the argument of Alpine that the word 'impossible' indeed sets a very high bar and that in hindsight, that very high bar was not met in this case," said the stewards.

"Of significant importance is the fact, unknown to the stewards previously, that Haas could have lodged a handwritten protest within the 30-minute deadline. By definition, this fact alone means that it was not 'impossible' to lodge the protest within 30 minutes and therefore the original protest should not have been admitted."

The stewards therefore reversed their decision that Haas's original protest was admissible and as result ruled "no penalty is to be applied to car #14 and the final classification should be amended and reissued".

Check out our Thursday gallery from Mexico City here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by ian_w, 28/10/2022 22:05

"Perhaps there should be a new "penalty system" whereby every time the FIA stewards say "My bad. We thank the teams for pointing out to us how our rules work and how they are to be fairly applied", they are summoned to the next team principal's meeting for a disciplinary hearing and a suitable penalty be imposed up on them."

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2. Posted by Editor, 28/10/2022 17:39

"@ Batman

Whilst we consider your case - with our intention being to make an initial decision in early May 2025 - you would be well advised to show some form of contrition possibly in the form of a financial donation... $7m being more than enough.

If this is acceptable, please leave in a brown envelope behind the cistern in The Ship in Wardour Street at 13:00 next Friday."

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3. Posted by Batman, 28/10/2022 17:20

"In this scenario, I'm not sure if this post will be considered admissible because the 30 minutes dead line clearly been exceeded even if it was impossible to me to publish it before. I hoppe no one feel the need to lodge a handwritten protest with PitPass editor."

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4. Posted by Wokingchap, 28/10/2022 14:08

"Editor.....haaaaaaaaaa"

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5. Posted by Wokingchap, 28/10/2022 14:06

"@Max Noble.....haaaaaa no I'm not Paul Weller but we do have connections. Rick Parfitt (R.i.p) was from Woking, we used to meet in the bank on Mondays after a gigging weekend....bless him. Also Mr.R.Dennis, probably the most successful Woking chap of all time....... my pal went to school with him but I daren't repeat his opinion.
George Bernard Shaw, but he only lived there for a while....Irish I believe.
You are definitely hugely excused sir."

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6. Posted by Max Noble, 28/10/2022 13:52

"@Editor - I’m crying!"

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7. Posted by Editor, 28/10/2022 13:50

"Then there's Prince Andrew"

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8. Posted by Max Noble, 28/10/2022 13:26

"@Wokingchap - Dang! All these years… “They call me the working man, because that’s what I am…” My bad. I try to have a few Easter Eggs in each article based around lyrics, and some get it (hello Canuck readers…) and other do not. In your case I’d simply never seen that the “r” was not there. Hopefully that means as a Woking Chap - you might well go get coffee with Paul Weller… The finest man to ever come from Woking… My Aunt does not count on the grounds I’m not telling you about my aunt (ex WW2 RN). So we remain with Weller… And in the improbable event you ARE Paul Weller, please say so as my wife would love to share a mineral water with you and talk about Stanley Road."

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9. Posted by Burton, 28/10/2022 11:32

"These guys can never be stewards again."

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10. Posted by Wokingchap, 28/10/2022 10:51

"It's Wokingchap Max, Wokingchap."

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11. Posted by Max Noble, 28/10/2022 9:52

"@Workingchap - so… the car was not flagged during the race… it passed post race scrutiny… and then (finally) Haas post an objection *after* the agreed time limit… and folk are calling that an “application of the rules”… Ummmm…. It was daft to allow the protest late. If it is not filed on time; it simply does not exist… Williams, and Aston are both getting fined for being late with finance submissions… and last time I looked F1 was quite obsessed with timing down to the thousandth of a second. 24 minutes is 1,440,000ths of a second too late, or about 18 laps of a typical circuit. They missed on all accounts, just like the stewards that didn’t call it…
"

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12. Posted by Wokingchap, 28/10/2022 9:40

"I agree with Jet Jockey. It's ridiculous and even infantile, and they even admit they didn't know the rules....pathetic."

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13. Posted by Max Noble, 28/10/2022 9:08

"Miss Physics finds endless mirth in laughing at the arbitrary rules of humans. Priceless, meaningless, adherence to arbitrary rules we all love… or not… because we all agree to be bound by them… until we don’t like them…"

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14. Posted by stackvideo, 28/10/2022 7:14

"Never a dull moment in F1, There's always a laugh guaranteed from somewhere within the FIA"

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15. Posted by Jet Jockey, 28/10/2022 6:50

"Lol… so they get their 7th place back not because the car was legal and safe but because HASS filed the complaint 24 minutes late."

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Alonso's 7th place at COTA reinstated

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