Alonso hit with post-race penalty - demoted to P9

Fernando Alonso has been demoted from seventh to ninth in the final standings of the Canadian GP after the Alpine driver was hit with a five-second time penalty for blocking Valtteri Bottas.

Alonso had qualified on the front row alongside future race winner Max Verstappen, but an air leak in his engine during the race  and a pit-stop strategy undermined by the event's virtual safety car periods dropped him down the order.

In the closing stages of the race, Alonso ran in the wake of teammate Esteban Ocon as he was told to hold station by his team.

• 2022 Canadian Grand Prix - Race results

But with one lap to go in the 70-lap race, Bottas caught up with the pair and was preparing to make a move on Alonso on the long straight before the final chicane when the Spaniard defended his position by weaving left and right.

Alonso's defensive driving earned him a trip to the Stewards' office where it was later judged that he had "made repeated changes of direction", forcing Bottas to lift and putting himself in breach Article 2 b) of Chapter IV Appendix L of the FIA International Sporting Code.

Alonso's drop from P7 to P9 equated to a loss of four points for himself and his Alpine team. But the Spaniard was also given a penalty point on his licence.

Further down the field, McLaren's Lando Norris was also handed a five-second penalty by the stewards for speeding in the pitlane.

But the sanction had no bearing in terms of points for the Briton as he had finished on the road outside of the top-ten.

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