Alpine driver Pierre Gasly has been excluded from the qualifying results for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after it emerged his car exceeded the permitted fuel flow rate during Saturday’s session.

Gasly qualified 13th for Sunday’s race, but after being disqualified from the results, will now start from the back of the grid.

Formula 1’s technical regulations limit the rate of the fuel mass flow to the car’s engine to 100 kilograms per hour and sensors are fitted to detect any instances where the rate is exceeded.

Although the spike in the flow rate resulted in a slower lap time, the stewards at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix had no choice but to disqualify Gasly in line with the regulations.

“The Technical Delegate reported that Car 10 exceeded the permitted 100Kg/h fuel mass flow on the final timed lap of Q2,” the stewards said.

“The team representatives explained that they had an unexpected short duration technical fault that raised the fuel mass flow greater than expected in a transient fashion. The cause was agreed by the FIA technical staff.

“That the fuel mass flow was greater than the limit at that moment was not disputed by the competitor.

“The competitor demonstrated to the stewards that the technical fault resulted in a slower lap time and that no performance advantage was obtained at that moment. Thus, they argue, this should be taken into mitigation.

“They also noted that the great rarity of breaches of this article demonstrates that this is not part of their strategy, and that the scale of the transient simply exceeded the margin they maintain to prevent a breach.”