Formula 1: Pierre Gasly issued 3-spot grid penalty for Monaco Grand Prix

Pierre Gasly qualified for the 2019 Formula 1 season’s sixth race, the Monaco Grand Prix, in fifth place, but he has been issued a three-position grid penalty.

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly has been issued a three-position grid penalty for the sixth race on the 21-race 2019 Formula 1 schedule, the Monaco Grand Prix, at Circuit de Monaco.

The 23-year-old Frenchman originally qualified his Honda-powered car in fifth place for this race by recording a top lap time of 71.041 seconds (105.100 miles per hour) around the 19-turn, 2.074-mile (3.338-kilometer) Circuit de Monaco temporary street circuit in Monte Carlo, Monaco in the third and final round of qualifying for the race.

However, he is now set to start the 78-lap race in eighth place, as he was issued a three-position grid penalty for moving slowly on his preparation lap in the second of three rounds of qualifying for the race and thus impeding the progress of Rich Energy Haas’ Romain Grosjean.

Grosjean ended up qualifying in 13th place and failing to advance to the third and final round of qualifying as a result of the fact that Gasly impeded his progress, although he placed the blame on Red Bull Racing as opposed to Gasly himself.

Here is what the 32-year-old Frenchman had to say about the matter, according to ESPN.

"“It’s got big, big consequences for me. I could have been in Q2 but obviously I’m P13. Red Bull must have f—ed up that one, Pierre couldn’t do anything.”"

Here is what the race stewards had to say about the matter, according to ESPN.

"“The driver of car 8 had to brake hard to avoid colliding with car 10 which was going slowly on a preparation lap, and was on the race line. At the time car 8 was clearly the only car on a fast lap in the area, and while the Stewards accepted that it was unlikely that the driver of car 10 had any opportunity in that sequence of turns to see car 8, the team admitted that they had failed to give any warning. The Stewards therefore determined that car 10 unnecessarily impeded car 8 and imposed a three grid place penalty and consistent with past practice imposed one penalty point.”"