Gasly avoids penalty for impeding as stewards rule he gave Tsunoda a tow

Pierre Gasly has kept his eighth place on the grid for the sprint race at Spa-Francorchamps after the stewards cleared him of impeding Yuki Tsunoda.

The stewards originally suspected Gasly held Tsunoda up through the high-speed Blanchimont corner during the first part of qualifying. However after examining the incident and speaking to the two drivers they ruled Tsunoda had in fact benefited from his rival’s slipstream.

“The driver of car 22 [Tsunoda] stated that he actually received a ‘tow’ from car 10 [Gasly] and did not have to back off in speed. This was verified by the telemetry. He further stated he was not impeded and did not need to take any evasive action.

“In view of the above the stewards decide to take no further action because no ‘unnecessary impeding’ occurred.”

Both drivers progressed from the first round of qualifying. Gasly went on to take eighth on the grid, four places ahead of his former team mate.

However Tsunoda was reprimanded for driving too slowly and failing to adhere to the maximum time between the two Safety Car lines during qualifying. The stewards said Tsunoda told them he “misjudged the delta time, stating that he thought he would ‘make the time’ but in this case he did not.”

George Russell received a reprimand for the same incident. He “stated that he misjudged the distance from the cars in front and thought that they would allow a bigger gap back to him in the final sector,” the stewards explained, “and accordingly he reduced speed to gain a gap which resulted in him exceeding the maximum time.”

Tsunoda’s reprimand is his second of the season, while this is Russell’s first. Any driver who collects five reprimands receives an automatic 10-place grid penalty.

The stewards noted 11 other instances of drivers failing to adhere to the maximum delta time, some of which were committed by Russell and Tsunoda, and took no action over any of them. Tsunoda was previously reprimanded for the same incident during last year’s Qatar Grand Prix.

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