Gasly just two points away from full race ban

Pierre Gasly may live to regret his defensive move against Lance Stroll in Sunday's Mexican Grand Prix as it has put the Frenchman on the brink of an F1 race ban.

The AlphaTauri charger was battling Stroll for position as the pair headed side-by-side in Turn 4. But Gasly ran deep into the corner on the inside, locked up and ran his opponent wide on the exit, a move that was frowned upon by the stewards who handed the Frenchamn a five-second time penalty.

However, a penalty point on Gasly's licence was also attached to the sanction, which brought his twelve-month rolling total to 10 points, or just two points short of an outright ban. Sunday's punishment was his third infringement in a row.

To make matters worse, Gasly's next reset isn't until May of next year, which means that he'll need to keep his nose clean in the last two races of 2022 and in the first seven races of 2023!

"I don’t feel like I’ve been that dangerous over the last 12 months," commented the future Alpine charger before Sunday's race, fully aware of the risk he carried.

"It would be a shame to get a race ban for slowing down a bit too much behind the safety car and a couple of track limits [infringements] this year."

• Read also: Gasly calls out intrusive fans in Mexican GP paddock

There seems to a consensus among the officials, let alone the drivers, that it's perhaps time to update the penalty points system to avoid drivers accumulating points on their superlicence for minor infringements.

"At the moment you’re losing points for these safety-car infringements or track limits, and obviously the penalty for it is a race ban, which we all agree and also the stewards agree is quite harsh," said Gasly.

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