Tsunoda cleared, Gasly reprimanded for collision at chicane

Pierre Gasly blamed Yuki Tsunoda for their collision during the Monaco Grand Prix but the stewards came down on the Red Bull driver’s side.

The pair made contact at the chicane on the seventh lap of the race. Gasly ran into Tsunoda’s right-rear wheel, damaging his car’s front-left corner and putting him out of the race.

Afterwards Gasly accused Tsunoda of causing the collision by changing his line in the braking zone, making it impossible to avoid the Red Bull.

“The driver of car 10 [Gasly] and the team representative took the position that the driver of car 22 [Tsunoda] did not leave at least one car width between his own car and the edge of the track (in breach of Appendix L [Chapter] IV Rule 2) and that is what led to the crash,” the stewards noted.

“They also suggested that car 22 was moving while braking, having commenced braking on the left-hand side of the track after turn nine but moving to the right-hand side before turn 10. They claimed that this contributed to the collision.”

The stewards disagreed with Gasly, and issued a lengthy explanation detailing why they held him responsible.

“We reviewed the line taken by the driver of car 22 on previous laps,” they explained. “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 [and] the requirement for him to leave at least one car’s width did not apply.

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“Secondly, we 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.”

Having deemed Tsunoda’s driving legal, the stewards determined Gasly had not taken enough care while trying to pass him.

“In the circumstances, it appeared to us that the attempted overtake of car 22, in the Monaco circuit, on the approach to turn 10 was ambitious and unlikely to succeed. The driver of car 10 ought to have exercised greater caution in attempting such a move and should have anticipated car 22 moving to the right, as had happened in the previous laps.

“We also checked the telemetry of car 10 whose rear tyres locked slightly while braking and that contributed to the incident as it reduced the braking efficiency of the car.

“We therefore considered that the driver of car 10 was wholly or predominantly to blame for the collision. We took into account the fact that there was no immediate and obvious sporting consequence to car 22 from the collision. Instead, it was car 10 that was significantly impacted by the collision.

“We therefore applied the penalty guidelines where there was no immediate and obvious sporting consequence and imposed a reprimand (driving) on the driver of car 10.”

Despite holding Gasly responsible, the stewards chose not to give him any penalty points on his licence.

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Penalty box

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