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Pierre Gasly’s fears of being the first Formula One driver to be hit with an automatic one-race ban have been eased with two points having expired.
Gasly had been sitting at 10 points due to a series of minor offences over a six-month stretch last year. Any driver who accrues 12 points in a 12-month period would be levied with an automatic one-race ban under the FIA’s new sanctioning system.
The first two of Gasly’s 10 points came when he collided with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll at the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix last May. With last weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola cancelled due to flooding, those two points dropped from Gasly’s total.
Gasly, who left Alpha Tauri for Alpine this season, still leads all drivers on the grid with eight points. The 10 he has accrued overall have been for a variety of offences including a pair of collisions, speeding under a red flag, for being too far behind the safety car and for exceeding track limits in order to gain an advantage.
The most recent of the Frenchman’s penalty points were levied last October. F1 stewards have limited penalty points in 2023 to instances of unsafe driving, and Gasly has not collected any additional points this year.
Gasly is currently 10th in the drivers standings, having earned eight points entering this week’s Monaco Grand Prix.
He took over the Alpine seat vacated by Fernando Alonso, the former world champion who currently sits in third place for Aston Martin behind the Red Bull tandem of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Gasly’s teammate Esteban Ocon is two points behind in 10th place.
Alpine has struggled thus far in 2023 and sits tied for fifth in the Constructors standings with 14 total points, tied with rival McLaren entering Monaco.
