The Aston Martin and Alpine Formula 1 teams have been fined €5000 each for the pitlane incident that occurred in Italian Grand Prix qualifying.
Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel was released into the path of Lewis Hamilton and both cars had to slow and change direction to avoid contact.
With Vettel having to keep partly in the slow lane he then had to avoid first the Aston Martin mechanic who had beckoned team-mate Lance Stroll out of his garage, and then an Alpine mechanic doing the same for Esteban Ocon.
For Vettel, the stewards felt that Aston Martin releasing both cars at the same time caused Vettel to move towards Hamilton and force the Mercedes driver to take evasive action.
Lewis's view of that pit lane incident 👀#ItalianGP 🇮🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/tRV4wZUJgG
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 10, 2021
Aston Martin’s punishment was for breaching the sporting rules that states cars “must not be released from a garage or pitstop position in way that could endanger pillane personnel or another driver”.
Alpine’s offence was slightly different. The stewards found that the team member signalling Ocon out of the garage “stepped back into the pitlane, close to the fast lane into the path of [Vettel]”.
“While the stewards accept that members of other teams also stepped this far into the pit lane, they did not obstruct another car and were not in a particularly dangerous situation,” they added.
Alpine was determined to have completed an “unsafe act”, in breach of the FIA International Sporting Code.
