Gasly disqualified from Baku qualifying after fuel flow infringement

Alpine driver Pierre Gasly has been disqualified from the qualifying session of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after the FIA found a discrepancy with its fuel mass flow.

After the qualifying session, the FIA stewards summoned Pierre Gasly for a breach of Article 5.2.3 of the Technical Regulations for ‘exceedance of the instantaneous fuel mass flow’, which states that the ‘fuel mass flow must not exceed 100kg/h’.

Following an investigation, the FIA handed out a disqualification that sends the French driver to the back of the grid, and means Gasly joins Zhou Guanyu in being penalised this weekend – the Kick Sauber driver exceeding his allowance of power unit components.

The FIA noted:“The Stewards heard from the team representatives of Car 10 (Pierre Gasly), including the Sporting Director and the Engineer involved, and the FIA Technical Delegate along with the FIA Engineers managing the measurements and data from the car,” it said.

“The driver was summoned to give him the opportunity to provide a defence, but did not attend the hearing. The Technical Delegate reported that Car 10 exceeded the permitted 100Kg/h fuel mass flow on the final timed lap of Q2. 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. The Stewards hereby gives the car permission to start the race.”