Gasly prepared to take drastic stewards action over Magnussen F1 ban

Pierre Gasly has revealed he would have tried to defend Kevin Magnussen to F1 stewards after he was handed a ban in the Italian Grand Prix. 

Magnussen is set to be benched for Azerbaijan next time out after picking up two penalty points for a Turn 4 incident with Gasly in which he tried to pass the Alpine on the inside, but locked up and sent both cars wide.

Magnussen was handed a 10-second time penalty as well as two penalty points for the move, taking him to 12 penalty points for the 12-month period, meaning he is the first driver banned under the system. 

Both he and Gasly were relatively unscathed after the incident, with Magnussen actually going onto finish in 10th place for one point, as Frenchman Gasly stuck up for the Dane Magnussen.

"I hope they can revert on that, because it will definitely be unfair," Gasly told media including RacingNews365 when told of Magnussen's ban.

"I [would]be happy to [defend Magnussen], and [I had] a drugs test so wasted an hour, but [I would have] seen what I could have done as it would be very unfair for the incident that it was.

"I was a bit surprised [about the penalty], as he tried, it was a bit of wheel-to-wheel contact and I didn't lose any time in the end. I am surprised."

Gasly's race

As for his own race, Gasly endured a tough weekend with Alpine's competitiveness not allowing for a challenge at the points. 

He finished 15th, one place behind team-mate Esteban Ocon on a weekend Alpine's lack of power from its engine stunted progress along with brake problems. 

"I really believed that we would have more potential in the race, and it was a lot harder," he explained.

"After qualifying, we found out that we had some issues with the brakes which carried on into the race and we had massive bouncing, a lot of degradation and the car just felt all wrong, so I want to check with the guys to see if everything is okay. 

"We will approach it one race at time, but [in Zandvoort], we had surprisingly good pace and surprisingly bad pace here, so we need to answer a lot of questions, regroup and come again with a stronger package."