FIA confirm penalty verdict after official PROTEST

The FIA have reached a decision following Aston Martin's protest at the Chinese GP.

Aston Martin lodged a protest against the results of qualifying at the Chinese GP, after Carlos Sainz crashed in Q2.

READ MORE: Marko reveals 'unbeatable' Sainz contract offer after confirming talks

The incident brought out a red flag after the Spanish driver lost the rear end of his car and went flying into the wall leaving the car stranded.

Aston Martin are invoked Article 39.6 of the sporting regulations, which reads: "Any driver whose car stops on the track during the qualifying session or the sprint qualifying session will not be permitted to take any further part in that session."

FIA dismiss Aston Martin protest

Despite Sainz stopping on track the FIA have dismissed the protest as: "it was clear from the examples cited by a number of the team managers present and the FIA, that this was not how this rule was applied by the teams and the FIA in the past."

Whilst Aston acknowledged this rule had not been applied in the past, they took issue with the amount of time Sainz's car was stopped on track.

Article 39.6 states that cars are only allowed to stop on track for 30 seconds and Car 55 was on track for 1 minute 17 seconds.

READ MORE: F1 Chinese Grand Prix weather forecast - latest today from Shanghai

After considering previous instances of cars stopping on track the Stewards decided to discard the protest because of previous incidents having passed without protest.

They stated: "In the above circumstances, taking into account the numerous examples where cars had stopped for different lengths of time and were permitted to restart and continue to participate in the session concerned, we considered that the decision taken by Race Control was not inconsistent with past practice nor in breach of Article 39.6."

READ MORE: FIA stewards ROB Hamilton pole after bizarre U-turn

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

FIA confirm Red Bull F1 changes as Max Verstappen frustration boils over at Japanese Grand Prix

• 25 minutes ago

FIA storm after Mercedes F1 disqualification verdict

• Yesterday 22:43

FIA confirm 'extensive' Ferrari inspection ahead of Japanese Grand Prix

• Yesterday 21:14

'Can we get over Christian Horner': Why former Red Bull chief is wrong for Aston Martin

• Yesterday 20:30

How Adrian Newey and Christian Horner can still work together in F1

• Yesterday 18:14

F1 News Today: Max Verstappen kicks out journalist as brutal Aston Martin timeline revealed

• Yesterday 17:20