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It has been a difficult start to Pierre Gasly’s stint at Alpine so far this F1 season but at least he can now finally relax to a certain extent over one aspect of his time with the French team.
Since last year’s Mexico City Grand Prix, Gasly has had to cope with the realisation he could face a race ban should he again fall foul of the sport’s regulations after racking up 10 points in the space of just over six months whilst with AlphaTauri.
Should Gasly have hit the 12-point buffer, he would have become the first driver to be hit with a ban since the FIA introduced the current sanctioning system.
Gasly initially picked up two points for causing a collision in last year’s Spanish Grand Prix, before committing the same offence in Austria on July 10, as well as collecting a point for exceeding track limits at the Red Bull Ring.
October then proved to be a woeful month for Gasly as he collected a further two points in the Japanese GP for speeding under a red flag, an additional two points in the USGP for falling too far behind the safety car, and then another point in Mexico for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
That left Gasly competing in the final two races of last season in São Paulo and Abu Dhabi, as well as the first six grands prix of this year with Alpine, with the threat of a ban hanging over him.
The fact there was no Emilia Romagna GP at the weekend, however, after it was cancelled due to localised flooding and there were serious safety concerns, favoured Gasly as it would have been the final race to negotiate.
With points removed after a 12-month period, the two points collected in Spain last year have now been dropped as it has been a year since the first offence, leaving Gasly now on eight points.
Gasly, however, still has more points on his super licence than any other driver.
