Sergio Perez and Yuki Tsunoda were both handed post-race penalties for unsafe releases during today's race, leaving the Mexican just 4 penalty points shy of a race ban.

Perez was handed a 5 second time penalty and 1 penalty point for his misdemeanour, when he was released in an unsafe manner and Fernando Alonso had to take evasive action to avoid a collision.

What made the situation worse was the fact that Perez left the pits when there was a red light showing, indicating that he should not leave his pit box.

Therefore the stewards imposed a 5 second time penalty and 1 penalty point.

At RB, the incident involving Tsunoda related to the Japanese driver being released unsafely from his garage during the reconnaissance lap into the path Lando Norris, who had to take evasive action to avoid a collision.

Tsunoda admitted that he did not see the Number 1 in his team signalling not to come out as his attention was diverted towards exiting the car from the garage. He apologized for his oversight.

An unsafe release during the race (which would include the reconnaissance lap) would typically attract a 5 second time penalty, which is what the stewards imposed.

In addition, for an infringement of this nature, it would be appropriate to award 1 penalty point, however given that this took place during the reconnaissance lap as opposed to the race proper, the stewards opted not to impose the penalty point.

The situation for Perez is particularly worrying for the penalty point awarded today brings him to 8 for the 12 month period, leaving him just 4 points away from a race ban.

Any driver who receives 12 penalty points within a 12 months period automatically receives a one-race ban and the Mexican has collected 8 in the last 10 races, beginning in Singapore last year for his collision with Alex Albon.

Further penalty points were awarded in Japan (4) for overtaking Fernando Alonso under the Safety Car and subsequently colliding with Kevin Magnussen, and Abu Dhabi (2) for colliding with Lando Norris.

A further 4 points in the next 15 races would result in an automatic race ban.

"It's a shame that we got that penalty," said Perez of today's penatly, "but luckily it didn't hurt our race. I think in these scenarios, I was quite close to Max and everyone was coming in at the same time, we just need a wider pit lane."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Pavlo, 10/03/2024 19:45

"@Batman - even if someone was astonished, the situation with Norris was also properly judged. As we learned several years ago with Bottas, start is judged by sensors, that have certain thresholds. Stewards checked that sensors were functional and it’s enough. Brief move and stop is not flagged.
As Bottas, drivers are free to try and trick by staying within threshold, but it’s quite risky and difficult - just couple milliseconds/centimetres would cost a lot.
Well, we may even think it’s not the best approach, but as long as the rules were not explicitly changed since Bottas in Austria, this decision is the only fair one."

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2. Posted by Pavlo, 10/03/2024 19:39

"I was a bit surprised to see 10 seconds to Kevin, but the penalty was fair, usually that would be 5s. But maybe they added because of aggressive behaviour before.
For the second one - I’d actually love to see 10 or even 30 seconds for overtaking off the track. Like 5s to Perez was nothing, had he stayed couple seconds more he could have lost a place to Leclerc, and then it would be interesting challenge to overtake.
In general, I think it was not a bad day from stewards."

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3. Posted by Batman, 10/03/2024 10:39

"Stewarts from this race should be themselves penalized and awarded 12 points and a definitely ban for what they've done to the sport, the fans and Kevin, not to mention the jump start situation. A shame. Even in F1 site post-race analysis they were astonished."

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Perez and Tsunoda penalised

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