FIA overturns Austin penalty – Alpine and Alonso given back P7

The FIA has overturned Fernando Alonso's penalty in the US Grand Prix after a two-stage process on Thursday that didn't start well for Alpine.

Haas lodged a protest after the race at the Circuit of the Americas claiming that Alonso's Alpine had been driven in an "unsafe" state given that it had lost a rear-view mirror.

The stewards accepted the complaint and subsequently hit Alonso with a post-race 30-second time penalty that dropped the Spaniard out of the points from P7 to P14.

But Alpine filed a counter-protest based on the fact that Haas had filed its complaint 24 minutes after the legal deadline.

A hearing late on Thursday afternoon with all parties at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez initially resulted in Alpine's protest being rejected.

It was judged that a protest cannot by lodged against a decision made by the stewards. The initial ruling also stated that Alpine’s counter-protest was made 68 minutes after the decision on the original protest was published, therefore it was outside of the prescribed time limit and was rejected.

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This immediately prompted Alpine to submit a right of review, with the Enstone squad's representatives claiming that they were in possession of new evidence, which was the fact that "it was not until 20:53 hrs on the day of the race that the team became aware that the original protest was lodged 24 minutes after the usual 30-minute deadline."

A second hearing therefore took place on Thursday evening during which it was established that Haas could have filed a handwritten protest on a timely basis or within the 30-minute legal deadline.

This element implied that Haas' initial protest was not admissible, which made it null and void. Alonso's hard-earned P7 in the US Grand Prix was therefore reinstated,

In a statement published after the hearing on Twitter, Alpine thanked "the FIA stewards for convening and reaching a positive conclusion on the matter involving Car #14 from last weekend’s United States Grand Prix."

"The team welcomes the decision made by the aforementioned stewards, whereby Car #14 reinstates its seventh-place finish and six points from the race.

"We look forward to continuing our collaborative work alongside the FIA to ensure the racing spectacle is maintained to the highest quality."

Prior to the hearing, Alonso had warned that if his penalty was upheld by the FIA, it would be "a huge problem" for Formula 1.

The Spaniard argued that deeming a car "unsafe" based on "an aerodynamic device that is not properly fixed" could lead to many cars being forced to retire from a race.

Another issue that emerged from Thursday's hearings was the fact that Alonso's Alpine had been declared "unsafe" despite no black and orange flag being shown to the Spaniard during the race by race control.

In their final document published on Thursday evening, the FIA stewards - in what could be considered as an indictment of race control - noted that Alonso was allowed to remain on track at the wheel of a car with a loose rear-view mirror that eventually fell off, and "strongly recommend procedures be put in place to monitor such matters".

"We also understand the FIA President has initiated a review into the use of the black and orange flag."

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