Gasly: FIA should overturn Magnussen ban

Pierre Gasly believes the FIA should overturn the single race suspension Kevin Magnussen is set to serve at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after a collision between the two drivers tipped Magnussen over his limit for penalty points and resulted in the ban.

Magnussen and Gasly banged wheels while racing for position at Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, with the stewards deeming Magnussen “wholly to blame” for the collision. The Haas driver was given a 10-second in-race penalty as well as two penalty points on his superlicence, taking his total penalty points to 12 in the past 12 months.

F1 rules state that 12 penalty points in a rolling 12-month period results in a driver’s superlicence being suspended, meaning Magnussen faces a one-race ban at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.

“Someone told me he got a 10-second penalty,” Gasly said after the race. “I’m a bit surprised by that.

“Yeah, he tried, but it was a bit of wheel-to-wheel. In the end, I didn’t lose any time. I’m a bit surprised.”

When Gasly was told Magnussen faced a race ban, the Alpine driver added: “I hope somehow they can revert on that, because that would be definitely unfair.”

“[When you are close to a penalty] you can’t approach racing properly or the way you want.

“I was in a similar situation, for different reasons, and it’s not a nice position to be in.”

Asked if he would raise the issue with the stewards, Gasly added: “I’d be happy to do it.

“I’ve got a drug test, so I’m going to waste an hour. After that, I’ll see what I can do.

“That would feel very unfair for the incident that it was.”