Alonso's penalty overturned, P3 podium result reinstated

Fernando Alonso has had his 10s time penalty in the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix overturned - and his third place reinstated. Aston Martin driver Alonso was given the penalty after the race after the stewards found he had incorrectly served a five second penalty earlier in the race for being out of position on the grid. It was a similar sanction to Esteban Ocon in Bahrain, and the penalty promoted George Russell to the podium for Mercedes. However, a Right of Review was granted by the stewards to Aston Martin, who were given the penalty for the rear jack touching the car before five seconds had elapsed. In the original verdict, the Stewards commented that "there was an agreed position that touching the car [including with the rear jack] would amount to “working” on the car", which is against the rules for taking penalties. During the review, the Aston Martin team brought evidence that showed that no agreed position had been reached regarding touching the car with a rear jack, stating: " Having reviewed the new evidence, we concluded that there was no clear agreement, as was suggested to the Stewards previously, that could be relied upon to determine that parties had agreed that a jack touching a car would amount to working on the car, without more. "In the circumstances, we considered that our original decision to impose a penalty on Car 14 needed to be reversed and we did so accordingly." Three-and-a-half hours after the race had finished, Alonso was officially reinstated to third place - the 100th podium of his Grand Prix career.