Pierre Gasly has been given a reprimand following his early clash with Yuki Tsunoda.

The Alpine driver collided with the Red Bull at the exit of the tunnel approaching the braking zone for Turn 10 on the eighth lap. The Alpine suffered serious damage as a result and had to travel slowly back to the pits and retire.

Summoned by the stewards, Gasly and his team representative took the position that Tsunoda did not leave at least one car width between his own car and the edge of the track (in breach of Appendix L Chp IV Rule 2) and that this is what led to the crash.

They also suggested that the Japanese driver was moving while braking, having commenced braking on the left hand side of the track after Turn 9 but moving to the right hand side before Turn 10. They claimed that this contributed to the collision.

The stewards reviewed the line taken by Gasly on previous laps. Other than marginal differences, the line taken was similar to the previous laps. So, he was not defending a position 'off-line' as required for a breach of Appendix L - the requirement for him to leave at least one car's width did not apply.

Also, they did not consider that he was moving under braking to defend at a corner (which is the other prohibition) but taking his normal racing line at the part of the track, which goes from left to right.

In the circumstances, it appeared to the stewards that the attempted overtake was ambitious and unlikely to succeed. Indeed, the stewards felt that Gasly ought to have exercised greater caution in attempting such a move and should have anticipated the Red Bull driver moving to the right, as had happened in the previous laps.

The stewards also checked the telemetry of the Alpine whose rear tyres locked slightly while braking and that contributed to the incident as it reduced the braking efficiency of the car.

The stewards therefore considered that Gasly was wholly or predominantly to blame for the collision.

They took into account the fact that there was no immediate and obvious sporting consequence to the Red Bull from the collision. Instead, it was the Alpine that was significantly impacted by the collision.

They therefore applied the penalty guidelines where there was no immediate and obvious sporting consequence and imposed a reprimand on Gasly, his first of the season.

"I don't think I did anything wrong, to be honest," said Tsunoda at race end. "I will do the same if I have one more time.

"Because I was hugging the wall the whole time. I knew which way I would take and I didn't want to move under the braking," he added.

"Yuki made a mistake before the tunnel," insisted Gasly, "so I got very close to him, and every lap he was braking on the racing line on the right. This lap, I was very close, so I decided to stay on the left.

"He started braking on the left, I committed to the right, and then he moved back onto the racing line, but I was already committing and braking later than him, so I just couldn't go anywhere.

"I don't really understand, on a braking zone, on a normal track, you don't move, so once you hit the brake, you stick to where you are.

"He clearly jumped on the brake on the left side of the line and then went over the white line. I'm sure we'll chat about it, but I don't think it was his finest move."

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