Fines have been handed out to Aston Martin and Alpine after a sequence of pit lane incidents during Friday's qualifying session at the Italian Grand Prix. As drivers left the pits during Q2 at Monza, Aston Martin sent both Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel out of the garage at the same time, with Stroll applying the brakes but Vettel continuing into the fast lane. Vettel emerged next to Lewis Hamilton, forcing the Mercedes driver to take avoiding action, while Red Bull's Max Verstappen also had to slow down. Moments later, Alpine cleared Esteban Ocon for release, with both Vettel and Hamilton slowing to avoid his car. Adding to both incidents, the Alpine team member who released Ocon stepped back towards Vettel's car, further obstructing the German. After reviewing the footage available to them, and speaking to representatives from both teams, the stewards decided to hand Aston Martin and Alpine €5,000 fines. "The driver of Car 5 [Vettel] was released by his team, but at the same time the team's other car was also being released," read the stewards' statement relating to the Vettel release. "This caused Car 5 to move towards the fast lane when Car 44 [Hamilton] was passing and Car 44 had to take avoiding action to avoid an incident." Of the incident sparked by Alpine, the stewards' notes read: "The team member of Car 31 [Ocon] who was responsible for releasing Car 31 stepped back into the pit lane, close to the fast lane into the path of Car 5. "While the Stewards accept that members of other teams also stepped this far into the pit lane, they did not obstruct another car and were not in a particularly dangerous situation. "In the case of Car 31 the Stewards determined that this was an 'unsafe act'."
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