Pierre Gasly loses his Monaco podium for the second time this season. The FIA International Court of Appeal ruled on Friday that his two five-second penalties from June’s race stand. The decision drops him from third to seventh and hands the podium back to Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar.
Gasly finished third on the road at the Monaco Grand Prix on June 7. Stewards gave him two penalties for pit lane speeding, dropping him to seventh. Alpine then found a 77cm gap between the first two timing loops and won a Right of Review, so Gasly returned to third on June 12.
McLaren and Red Bull refused to accept that result and filed appeals with the FIA. The International Court of Appeal heard the case in Paris on August 25, right after the Dutch GP. Alpine argued that car number 10 never broke the pit lane limit, but the panel sided with the two rival teams.
The final order now matches the version released just after the checkered flag in June. Hadjar reclaims third for Red Bull, while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri moves back up to fourth. Racing Bulls drivers Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad slot into fifth and sixth, and Gasly drops to seventh.
The top two positions never changed. Kimi Antonelli still holds the win for Mercedes, with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton second. Alpine called the outcome unjust and said car number 10 never went beyond the pit lane speed limit at any point during the race, though the team accepted the panel’s final decision.
Alpine team boss Flavio Briatore started a new controversy after the ruling. Specifically, he claimed that one of the four judges had links to McLaren. For example, there is an old photo from a 2018 McLaren-sponsored speech. Furthermore, the judge also has a connection to a charity that received McLaren cars. As a result, Briatore called the situation very unfair.
Moreover, Briatore named the judge as Filippo Marchino. According to him, Marchino acted like a prosecutor during the hearing rather than a neutral judge. Additionally, he added that Alpine only learned about the McLaren connection after the ruling came out. Consequently, the team had no chance to raise an objection beforehand.
Nevertheless, a reporter pointed out that Marchino was not the panel president. In fact, that role belonged to a different judge named Grech. However, Briatore said Alpine still has no plans for a legal challenge right now. Instead, the team will decide after the Italian GP weekend is over.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella pushed back hard on the allegation. He called the claim insulting to McLaren’s reputation and said the hearing was run to the highest standards. Stella also stressed that every team attended the hearing because it helped clarify how FIA rules apply across a race weekend.
The ruling landed on the same day as FP1 for the Italian GP at Monza. Charles Leclerc topped the session for Ferrari, just ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton. George Russell was third for Mercedes, with Liam Lawson fourth for Red Bull. Kimi Antonelli finished fifth, though he faces a grid penalty on Sunday.
Monza’s heat is adding to the pressure this weekend, with track temperatures pushing past 30 degrees. Alpine now has to decide whether to pursue the Gasly case further or move on and focus on the fight for position in the constructors’ standings.
