Micmac in Jeddah. Spaniard Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), who finished third in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday before receiving a ten-second penalty that dropped him to fourth place, finally recovered his place on the podium more than three hours after the race. The 41-year-old double world champion and ex-Alpine driver started the race with a bang. He passed Perez at the first corner but was quickly penalized five seconds for poor grid positioning.
He then took advantage of the intervention of the safety car to return to the pits and carry out this penalty. But a jack hit his car. Punishment ? A new penalty of ten seconds formalized after the protocol ceremony. With these penalty seconds, Alonso who came third in the race behind the two untouchable Red Bull drivers (Perez and Verstappen) tumbled from the podium to fourth place. Not definitely. Aston Martin appealed this sanction and finally won its case by proving that several teams had not been penalized in similar cases in the past, forcing the FIA to review its decision.
This turnaround allows Alonso to clinch the 100th podium of his career, the second in two races this season after his third place in Bahrain two weeks ago. He has 30 points in the drivers’ standings, respectively 13 and 14 lengths behind Sergio Pérez and Max Verstappen, first and second on Sunday.
“In the end, I’m happy with the result tonight and our second podium. We showed that we could be the second fastest team and we maintained a good pace throughout the race. I made a mistake on the grid but we gave everything to make up for lost time. We didn’t really know where we would be before the weekend so it’s good news for the next races,” said the Spaniard. His British team also recovers second place in the Constructors’ World Championship, tied on points (38) with Mercedes.