Pierre Gasly has lost the fifteen points he earned from finishing third during the GP2 Series Feature race at Hockenheim on Saturday after being excluded from the race.
Stewards deemed his car not to comply with safety regulations after his fire extinguisher went off during the race, meaning that when they checked it at the conclusion, it was found to be empty.
The Red Bull-backed Prema Racing driver had recovered superbly from a sluggish start to pass Raffaele Marciello on the run to the finish line, beating the Italian by 0.030 seconds, but it now all counts for nothing, with Gasly now set to start Sunday’s Sprint race from the back of the grid rather than sixth.
Marciello has inherited the podium position that he had appeared to have lost on the final lap, while Antonio Giovinazzi now moves up to eight and reverse grid pole for Sunday’s race.
It also has an effect in the points standings, with Gasly still leading the championship but by a reduced margin of six points over Sergey Sirotkin, while Giovinazzi and Marciello are only a further point back.
Gasly was not the only driver to receive a penalty after the race, with both Artem Markelov and Daniel de Jong handed five-place grid penalties for causing collisions with Jordan King and Sean Gelael respectively.
