F1 star rocked by late FIA penalty at British Grand Prix

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British Grand Prix

F1 star rocked by late FIA penalty at British Grand Prix

Pierre Gasly's evening just got a whole lot worse

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Saturday 4 July 2026 20:25

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Pierre Gasly has been handed a late FIA penalty at the British Grand Prix, knocking him down the F1 grid ahead of Sunday's race.

The Frenchman was summoned to the stewards to answer an accusation of impeding Lance Stroll in qualifying on Saturday afternoon at Silverstone, for which he was eventually given a three-place grid penalty.

That will move him down from 12th on the grid to 15th for Sunday's race – and unlike in Monaco, his team are unlikely to be able to cry to the FIA and get this penalty chalked off.

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The impeding incident in question had no impact on Stroll's chances of advancing to Q2, because he is driving a 2026 Aston Martin, and will not affect his grid position thanks to an impending grid penalty of his own for power unit component changes outside of his season allowance. In addition, Gasly's radio wasn't working at the time, leaving him working on informed guesswork about the cars approaching him from behind.

Nevertheless, impeding is impeding, even if it ends up essentially being a meaningless crime. Alpine's lawyers, put the pen and paper down please.

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Why was Pierre Gasly given a grid penalty at the British Grand Prix?

The stewards' explanation of their decision read: "STR was on a timed lap in Q1. GAS was on an in lap and, on the approach to Turn 15, remained on the racing line at a slow speed, requiring STR to move off line in order to pass.

"GAS explained that he had no functioning radio at the time, that he had been attempting radio checks and that he expected another driver (ANT), to remain behind him rather than overtake, as he understood ANT not to be on a timed lap. The team representative pointed out that there was no radio warning to GAS because of a technical issue with FOM equipment, which was confirmed by FOM.

"The Stewards accepted that these were unfortunate circumstances and took into account that the driver was left without the usual radio warning from the team. The team representative of STR also confirmed that, in his view, the circumstances were unfortunate.

"However, the absence of a radio warning does not remove the driver’s responsibility to avoid impeding another car. GAS remained at a slow speed on the racing line and the evidence showed that the driver had information available to him, including the dashboard display, to appreciate STR was approaching on a timed lap.

"In those circumstances, the Stewards determined that GAS unnecessarily impeded STR and therefore impose the standard penalty of a 3 grid position drop."

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