Alonso was first sanctioned for non-compliance with a penalty: while serving his five-second penalty in the pits, a mechanic put the rear jack in contact with his car, while the regulations state that one can "not work" on the car during his penalty.
The Aston Martin team then produced documents showing that other competitors had done the same thing in the past without being sanctioned. The FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) stewards, who had imposed an additional ten seconds of penalty, finally gave him his way, giving the Spanish driver back his third place behind the two Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.
"This issue will be discussed at the next meeting of the Sporting Advisory Committee, scheduled for Thursday, March 23," said a spokesman for the FIA, which regulates F1: "A clarification, he added, will be published before the Australian Grand Prix," scheduled for April 2.
In Jeddah, the FIA said, stewards allowed Aston Martin to file an appeal after being confronted with "new evidence regarding the definition of (the expression) +working on the car+, for which there were conflicting precedents".
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