AUSTIN, Texas — Fernando Alonso has been relegated from seventh to fifteenth on the U.S. Grand Prix following a protest from rival staff Haas.

Alonso turned in a memorable efficiency in Austin after being despatched airborne in a collision with Lance Stroll on lap 22, which left his automobile broken. He recovered to complete seventh on monitor.

Twenty-five laps after that Stroll collision, Alonso’s proper wing mirror got here free from the automobile as he was overtaking Haas driver Kevin Magnussen.

Haas protested the broken mirror as they felt the FIA ought to have proven Alonso the black and orange flag which denotes a driver should pit to repair a broken automobile.

Magnussen has been proven the flag on three events this 12 months – in Canada, Hungary and Singapore. On all three events Haas and the Danish driver felt the flag was pointless and ruined their race.

The stewards agreed Alonso ought to have been proven related, giving him a retrospective 30 second time penalty – the equal of serving a 10-second stop-go penalty in race circumstances. With Alonso dropping out of the factors, Sebastian Vettel strikes as much as seventh, Magnussen as much as eighth, Yuki Tsunoda to ninth and Alonso’s teammate Esteban Ocon as much as tenth.

Alonso’s automobile had been repaired at a pit cease instantly following the Stroll incident, however the stewards deemed it had been launched again out to the race monitor in an unsafe situation.

Alpine argued within the listening to that there was solely ever one automobile behind Alonso when the mirror was free and that the staff was advising the two-time world champion of the gaps all through.

Additionally they pointed to a earlier incident the place Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have been allowed to drive on with out a mirror on the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix. Nonetheless, the FIA stated the mirror had been flapping round for a number of laps earlier than falling off.

FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer stated the mirror may have hit one other driver.

The FIA verdict stated the stewards have been “deeply involved” Alonso was not given the black and orange flag in the course of the race.

Haas additionally protested Pink Bull’s Sergio Perez after the race for the same cause. Perez misplaced a entrance wing endplate a number of laps after colliding with Valtteri Bottas within the opening minute of the race.

Nonetheless, the FIA stewards dismissed the protest on Perez’s automobile, disagreeing that the endplate had been harmful.

On that protest, the decision stated: “Mr Bauer defined that after the tip plate had fallen off, Pink Bull had contacted him and despatched him detailed images of the entrance wing.

“Mr Bauer decided that the automobile was not in an unsafe situation.”