Antonio Giovinazzi was issued a ridiculous penalty following the Singapore Grand Prix, a race in which he recorded just his third career Formula 1 top 10 finish.
In the same Formula 1 race during which Alfa Romeo Racing rookie Antonio Giovinazzi ended an 86-race, 5,213-lap drought of non-Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull Racing drivers failing to lead a lap, he was also issued quite a ridiculous post-race penalty.
Giovinazzi led four laps of Sunday’s 61-lap Singapore Grand Prix around the 23-turn, 3.146-mile (5.063-kilometer) Marina Bay Street Circuit in Marina Bay, Singapore before going on to finish the race in 10th place, marking his third top 10 finish of the season.
But after the race, he was issued a 10-second penalty for something that had nothing to do with the competition itself.
During the safety car period that took place as a result of the crash involving Haas’ Romain Grosjean and Williams rookie George Russell, Giovinazzi was found guilty of ignoring instructions to stay to the right of the incident as the marshals worked to remove Russell’s wrecked car from the track.
Here is what an FIA statement about the matter said, according to Formula 1.
"“The Race Director had instructed all cars to stay to the right at the incident at Turn 8, because of the crane and marshals working the crash at that location. There was a double waved yellow before the incident.“While the Stewards accepted the explanation of the driver that he felt he was going sufficiently slowly, and while he was driving to his SC delta time, he did however end up driving closer to the crane and marshalls (sic) than was felt safe by either the marshalls on location or the Race Director. The Stewards concur.“The driver had been told of the location of the incident and to stay right, but may not have considered that the crane was moving.”"
Giovinazzi deserved some kind of penalty as a result of the safety implications of his move. But it seems pretty ridiculous to penalize him 10 seconds for something that had absolutely nothing to do with competition itself.
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Fortunately for Giovinazzi, he finished more than 10 seconds ahead of Grosjean in 11th place. Grosjean finished 35.436 seconds behind Vettel while Giovinazzi finished 17.581 seconds up the road, just 17.855 seconds behind Vettel, so Giovinazzi was officially scored 27.855 seconds behind Vettel and 7.581 seconds ahead of Grosjean.
Most importantly, he still retained the one point he scored as a result of his 10th place finish, which was the fourth point of his Formula 1 career.
The 25-year-old Italian sits in 18th place in the driver standings heading into next Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix at Sochi Autodrom, the 16th of 21 races on the 2019 schedule.
Antonio Giovinazzi scored the first point of his Formula 1 career by finishing in 10th place in the Austrian Grand Prix, and he added two more points with his ninth place finish in the Italian Grand Prix before finishing in 10th in the Singapore Grand Prix.
He was already stripped of what would have been an eighth place finish in the German Grand Prix as a result of a post-race penalty, so retaining this 10th place finish has to be a relief for him and Alfa Romeo Racing.