Another endless race
The appeals and counter-appeals in Monaco, with the podium first taken away, then assigned, and then taken away again from Pierre Gasly, were evidently not enough. The Italian Grand Prix also seems destined to experience its share of complaints and legal battles after the race, although for less noble positions. This time, the Audi team filed an appeal against the final GP result, having just missed the points zone with its two cars. Gabriel Bortoleto finished the Italian GP in 11th place and Nico Hulkenberg in 12th, both immediately behind Yuki Tsunoda’s Racing Bulls, the last driver to score world championship points.
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Audi against Tsunoda
Mattia Binotto and the management of the Hinwil team did not appreciate that the stewards did not take any action regarding the chaos caused by Tsunoda at the time of the second start. The Japanese driver started from the wrong grid position and then tried to reposition himself correctly at the last moment, but put the car sideways, forcing the Race Direction to abort the start procedure and impose a new formation lap. However, despite this infraction, the Japanese driver started regularly from the grid and did not receive any penalty during the race.
Audi was not at all pleased and published the following statement: “Following the Italian Grand Prix, we raised an issue regarding the application of Article B5.9.4, which states that a driver causing an additional formation lap must return to the pit lane and restart from there. The stewards issued a decision of ‘No further action’ and we have communicated our intention to appeal. Since the matter is now subject to the FIA appeal procedure, we will not make further comments at this stage.” The hope is that this matter will be resolved more quickly than the Monaco GP case…
