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Officials rejected Aston Martin’s right of review into Alonso’s penalty from the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint.
The Spaniard copped both a time penalty and points on his Super Licence following a clash with Carlos Sainz during the Saturday race.
The pair had been running side-by-side through the fast Turn 7/8 complex before making contact that ultimately left Alonso with a puncture.
He was handed a time penalty for the clash which would have been post-race had Aston Martin not retired the car.
Given that, the review sought not to address the time penalty but the licence points associated with the incident.
To do so, Aston Martin had to first produce evidence that was both new and significant, and only once that condition was satisfied would officials reinvestigate.
The team duly presented onboard footage from Alonso’s car that was not available at the time.
“While the footage was undoubtedly “new”, as it was unavailable to us during the hearing, there was sufficient footage from other camera angle to give us a clear basis to make the decisions in Documents 40 and 41,” officials declared.
“The footage would also be “relevant” given that it related specifically to the incident in question.
“However, even though we did not have this footage at the time we made our decision, we did not consider the footage to be a “significant” new element. The new footage would not have caused us to question our decision or otherwise give us a perspective that we did not already have of the incident.
“We accordingly dismissed the petition for review, without the need for us to proceed to the second stage of the review.”
With the review petition having failed, the three points Alonso accrued in China remain on his licence, for a total of 6 of the allowed 12 over a rolling 12-month period.
The other three points resulted from Alonso’s “extraordinary” dangerous driving in the lead-up to George Russell’s Australian Grand Prix crash.
It’s a situation that has left the two-time world champion frustrated as he cast doubt over the impartiality of the stewards.
“I do feel that nationality matters,” he said.
“I will speak with Mohammed (Ben Sulayem, FIA president), with FIA, whatever I need to make sure that there is not anything wrong with my nationality or anything that can influence any decision – not only for me, also for the future generation of Spanish drivers that need to be protected.”
Follow-up questions on the matter were shut down by Aston Martin’s press officer.
The four stewards at the Chinese Grand Prix, who also heard the right of review petition, were Nish Shetty (Singapore), Loic Bacquelaine (France), Vitanonio Liuzzi (Italy), and Zheng Honghai (China).
Speedcafe has approached the FIA for comment.
