JAKARTA - Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso touched the finish line for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Formula 1, Sunday, March 19, evening local time, behind the Red Bull Racing duo, Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.
The result made him also get on the podium with Perez who came out as the champion and Verstappen who finished second. Alonso climbed the third podium in Jeddah.
There was bad news for Alonso. The Spaniard had to lose the Saudi Arabian GP F1 podium. It followed an additional penalty of 10 seconds as he was caught serving his previous penalty incorrectly.
Alonso stole the race leadership position towards the first corner of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit after starting from P2. However, he was awarded the first penalty because the position of the car was not right on the grid before starting.
The Spaniard underwent an additional five-second penalty during a pitstop in the Safety Car period following the technical damage to his team-mate, Lance Stroll, who was forced to stop his car on the side of the track.
After celebrating the 100th podium of his career, Alonso found that stewards had carried out further investigations. As a result, the former Ferrari rider was awarded a second penalty for himself.
Fernando Alonso. The Centurion. 💯#SaudiArabianGP #F1 @alo_oficial pic.twitter.com/pD4LPgzrNk
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 19, 2023
Stewards saw that when Alonso was on a five-second penalty, the jack to bring up the back of the driver's car for a change of tires had touched the AMR23 car before the five-second penalty was implemented.
The same thing happened to Alpine Racer Esteban Ocon in Bahrain two weeks ago.
Steward then gave Alonso an additional 10 seconds after the race. The penalty made him drop to fourth and George Russell inherited the podium for Mercedes.
However, some time later, F1 made a new announcement. The third Podium was returned to Alonso.
This decision was taken after conducting a review requested by Aston Martin's team. As a result, Alonso is considered not to violate the rules.
"BREAKING: Fernando Alonso's third place in Jeddah has been restored!" tweeted F1 on their official Twitter account.
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