Aston Martin weekend takes a turn for the worse with FIA fine

Aston Martin's Spanish Grand Prix weekend has taken another turn for the worse as the team has been fined for an unsafe release during qualifying.

Aston Martin has been at the centre of F1's latest copying storm given the upgraded AMR22's striking resemblance to the Red Bull RB18.

Although the team has so far been cleared by the FIA, Red Bull has questioned the potential transference of IP given seven former members of staff joined Aston Martin over the winter.

Despite hoped-for progress around Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya, Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll could only qualify 16th and 18th respectively, with the four-time champion missing out on a place in Q2 by 0.074s to Alpine's Esteban Ocon.

The afternoon was made worse by the fact Stroll was clearly released into the path of McLaren's Lando Norris at one stage during the first section of qualifying.

Aston Martin has now been fined €5,000 [£4,227, $5,280] for the offence.

A stewards' report read: "The stewards heard from the driver of car 18 [Lance Stroll], the driver of car 4 [Lando Norris] and team representatives, and examined video.

"The team manager of car 18 admitted that, in error, the team released car 18 into the path of car 4 creating an unsafe release."

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