The Spaniard was locked in a super-tight battle with the Ferraris for third place within the closing levels of the Shanghai dash occasion, as he battled quickly degrading tyres.
However because the pair swapped positions backwards and forwards, they clashed at Flip 9 two laps from residence in an incident that earned Alonso a puncture – which compelled him into the pits for contemporary tyres earlier than he ultimately retired.
The stewards summoned each drivers forward of qualifying to debate the matter, and decided that Alonso had been at fault as he had the chance to keep away from a collision.
Though Alonso retired, the stewards mentioned it was commonplace apply so as to add 10-seconds to his elapsed time – an anomaly within the laws that it has urged the FIA to have a look at.
An announcement issued by the stewards mentioned: “As per the pointers on driving requirements, which was agreed with the groups, an infringement of this nature required that a baseline penalty of 10 seconds was to be added to the time of a automobile that precipitated a collision.
“Article 54.3 of the Sporting Rules states if the 10 second penalty is imposed after the finish of a dash session, then 10 seconds will be added to the elapsed time of the driver involved. We accordingly added 10 seconds to the elapsed time of Automotive 14.
“As an apart to the FIA, we be aware that the language in the laws as to when a automobile has retired and the resultant penalties on penalties that could be imposed or served, particularly when that automobile is in any other case labeled, is considerably unclear and we might suggest that the FIA considers making the essential amendments to convey higher readability to this situation.”
Talking to Spanish channel DAZN after the dash, Alonso reckoned that Sainz had not left him as a lot room of their battle as he had supplied his compatriot earlier across the lap.
“Flip 7, I feel we had been evenly matched, then in flip 8 I attempted to go to the skin,” mentioned Alonso. “However he opened the road to not depart me room, so in flip 9 I did the identical factor he did in flip 8.
“I attempted to go to the within to not depart him room on the road, however in flip 8 I opened up so we did not contact, and in flip 9 he did not open up. So we touched.”
Alonso’s three penalty factors means he has now a complete of six factors for the earlier 12 months interval.