Pierre Gasly was forced to pull over and retire from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix by the FIA.
An oil leak in the latter stages put the Frenchman on the sidelines in his final race for Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda.
According to RaceFans, FIA race director Charlie Whiting told the Toro Rosso team to get Gasly to pull over to avoid more oil ending up on the track.
“We asked the team to make him stop.” said Whiting.
“His engineer was still giving him blue flag messages and not addressing the fact that the engine was about to expire.
“Once we told him, Pierre pulled off and that was okay.”
Gasly himself said after the race that he was disappointed to end 2018 with a retirement.
“I started seventeenth and managed to move up the field to tenth and fight with Romain who finished ninth, but unfortunately we ended the season the same way we started it, with a DNF.
“It was a bit emotional today because it was my last race with Toro Rosso. I’ve had a great season with them and Honda and I really wanted to finish well.
“Overall, it was a positive season from my side, I really enjoyed working with Toro Rosso and I will remember the good weekends we had together.”
He also added that he was excited for his future with the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team in 2019.
“I’m excited to start a new chapter with Red Bull Racing next year but, still, I will miss the guys here: they gave a lot to me and they’re great people who have a lot of passion for what they do…it was a big pleasure to work with them!”
