Gasly disqualified after Azerbaijan GP qualifying infringement

Pierre Gasly has been disqualified from qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after his Alpine was found to have breached the FIA technical regulations.

Alpine driver Gasly was knocked out in Q2 and had been due to start from 13th on the Baku Street Circuit grid for Sunday's race. The DQ, however, means the Frenchman will now line up from the back of the grid.

Gasly's car was found to have breached Article 5.2.3 of the 2024 Formula One Technical Regulations which states that "fuel mass flow must not exceed 100kg/h [kilograms per hour]".

The FIA's F1 technical delegate Jo Bauer referred the matter to the stewards whose report, following an investigation, read: "The team representatives explained that they had an unexpected short duration technical fault that raised the fuel mass flow greater than expected in a transient fashion. 

“The cause was agreed by the FIA technical staff. That the fuel mass flow was greater than the limit at that moment was not disputed by the competitor. The competitor demonstrated to the Stewards that the technical fault resulted in a slower lap time and that no performance advantage was obtained at that moment.

“Thus, they argue, this should be taken into mitigation. They also noted that the great rarity of breaches of this article demonstrates that this is not part of their strategy, and that the scale of the transient simply exceeded the margin they maintain to prevent a beach.

“The usual penalty for a breach of the technical regulations is disqualification and the Stewards note that Article 1.3.3 of the International Sporting Code states 'If an Automobile is found not to comply with the applicable technical regulations, it shall be no defence to claim that no performance advantage was obtained.' 

“In addition to the Code this has long been the position of the International Court of Appeal. Thus, the Stewards apply the usual penalty and disqualify the car and driver from the classification of qualifying.”

It is the third disqualification after qualifying this year. Haas drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen were disqualified from the Monaco GP after their cars breached rear-wing measurements.

More recently, Alex Albon suffered the same fate after a new floor on his Williams was found to minimally breach the rules after qualifying for the Dutch GP.