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Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez sympathized with Fernando Alonso over the penalty inflicted upon him, one that cost him a place on the podium. Both drivers felt that the poor visibility from the car made it difficult to determine the grid box.
Alonso was handed a 10-second penalty for not serving his earlier five-second pit-stop penalty.
Asked by Sportskeeda about the action against the Spaniard, Verstappen said:
“I haven't seen how much he was out of his box. It is painful when it happens but it's a bit the same with the white line with track limits. Sometimes you argue: Did you gain anything going wide or not, going outside of it? I think at one point we do need a rule.
"It looks really silly if people start to take advantage of going really left and right but yeah, I didn't know what we can do better. The visibility is just really poor in the car. That is, I think, probably the main issue where you end up sometimes not fully, correctly in your box.”
Explaining the situation with Fernando Alonso further, Perez said:
“Yeah, it's really difficult just to see where you’ve stopped. I think, in my opinion, I just overdid it and I stopped too early, but you have no idea when you are in the car. You don't know if you went too far or from behind or too far forward.
"So I think it's something… we need better visibility to be able to come up with a better idea than we currently have it. It's good that there is a rule in place, but at the same time, sometimes it's like luck, to be honest, where you position yourself.”
Asked whether the rule regarding the penalty for wrong grid box position could be improved, both Red Bull drivers felt the rule was fair. But, they believe, poor visibility from the car made the situation difficult.
Both drivers lamented the luck of Fernando Alonso, who lost his podium, after a further 10-second penalty was slapped on him for not serving his previous penalty in the pit stop properly. Esteban Ocon had suffered from a similar barrage of penalties in the Bahrain GP, resulting in him finishing last.
George Russell felt penalty slapped on Fernando Alonso was harsh
George Russell empathized with Fernando Alonso and felt the punishment given to him was harsh. The Briton thinks that the penalties in general, even in the qualifying and the race, were extreme.
While the Spaniard celebrated his podium and sprayed champagne for a third-place finish, a 10-second penalty was slapped on him before he could step off. The Spaniard was demoted from the third place while the Briton was promoted to the podium.
However, the Briton didn't let the benefit to him obscure from his sight the hard luck of Alonso:
“I think it was very harsh what happened to Fernando. In all honesty, I feel like some of these penalties have been a little bit too extreme. What we’ve seen this weekend for some drivers qualifying yesterday and what happened to Fernando.”
Having been slapped with a penalty 30 laps after the pit stop, both Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso have appealed the penalty under the 'right of review' clause.
The right of review will allow the team to argue their situation and appeal to the FIA and its stewards. The provisional result stands at the moment where Fernando Alonso is classified fourth, but the final classification of the race result is subject to the decision of the FIA.
