Fernando Alonso has criticised a "poor show" from the FIA over the time it took to award his post-race Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix penalty. Alonso crossed the line third in Jeddah to claim his second podium of the season, and 100th of his Grand Prix career having served a five-second penalty at his pit-stop for not being in the correct position at the start. He was deemed to be too far left of his P2 grid spot and was handed the penalty, but the stewards found the rear jack touched the car before the five seconds had elapsed. As was the case with Esteban Ocon in Bahrain, a 10s penalty was awarded but this was not done during the race, instead coming after Alonso had gone onto the podium. UPDATE: However, three-and-a-half hours after the race was over, Alonso's penalty was rescinded and his third place reinstated.
Alonso not happy with FIA
The two-time World Champion was not happy with the decision taking so much time, especially as Ocon's was handed out in-race in Sakhir. "Now I have apparently three points less, I don't have 15, I have 12," he explained to Sky Sports F1 after being confirmed in fourth place. "But I think it is more poor show from the FIA today when you cannot apply a penalty 35 laps after the pitstop. "They had enough time to really inform about the penalty, because if I knew [I had the extra penalty], maybe I open [an] 11 second gap to the car behind, so we didn't put on a good show for our fans today."
Aston driver fesses up
Speaking to media, including RacingNews365 ,post-race, Alonso admitted full responsibility for the mistake in positioning his AMR23. "So it was my mistake, I need to pay more attention to that," the Spaniard explained. "It's a bit strange that two races, two cars, Esteban and myself have similar [problems], so maybe this years cars, or the halo or whatever is interacting with the vision in how we position the car. "But anyway, that was my mistake but the thing is, they told me, you have a five seconds penalty, so I pushed a little bit harder and opened [the gap to P4 Russell] and I paid the penalty. "In the second stint [after the initial penalty had been served], there was no investigation, no information, no nothing."
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