Saudi Arabian GP: Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso accomplished a special 100 in his illustrious career as the Spanish driver joined an elite list in Formula 1 history. Aston Martin and Alonso continued their dream start at the 2023 season of the motorsport as they secured back-to-back podiums in the first two races of the season. Alonso, who finished third at the Bahrain opener two weeks ago, once again hit the headlines with another podium in the Saudi Arabian GP on Sunday.
In this process, Alonso has accomplished his 100 podium results in his F1 career. He is only the sixth driver in the motorsport's history to secure a century of top-three finishes in their career. The 41-year-old Alonso has joined the elite club of drivers, which includes seven-time world champions Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, among others.
Drivers with the most F1 podiums:
Lewis Hamilton- 191*
Michael Schumacher- 155
Sebastian Vettel- 122
Alain Prost- 106
Kimi Raikkonen- 103
Fernando Alonso- 100*
* denotes active drivers in F1.
Alonso started the race on the second place, behind Red Bull driver Sergio Perez as reigning world champion Max Verstappen started on 15th due to a penalty. Alonso led the race for a brief time but ultimately crossed the line third, behind race winner Sergio Perez and Verstappen. Alonso was inflicted with two penalties, the first one being a five-second due to his wrong location on the grid at the start of the race, and the second one being a ten-second penalty due to wrongly serving the first one. He finished third but the ten-second punishment meant he lost his podium and secured fourth for a brief time. But the Aston Martin team sent a review request for the latter penalty and Alonso was handed his podium back.
Why was Alonso's second penalty got repealed?
Alonso served his five-second penalty in the pit stop, where one of the mechanics indulged in a rear jack touch while Alonso was still serving the penalty. It was said that a touch to the car while serving a penalty means working on the car which can call for further penalties. Alonso was inflicted with a ten-second punishment after the race and got dropped from third to fourth. But his team requested a review and FIA released a document, announcing the reversing of the decision. "In support of the Petition for Review, the Stewards were shown minutes of the latest SAC meeting and video evidence of 7 different instances where cars were touched by the jack while serving a similar penalty to the one imposed on Car 14 without being penalized.
"The clear submission by the Team was that the alleged representation of an agreement between the FIA and the teams that touching the car in any way, including with a jack, would constitute 'working' on the car for the purposes of Article 54.4 (c) of the Sporting Regulations, was incorrect and therefore the basis of the Stewards' decision was wrong," F1 quoted a statement.
"We, therefore, proceeded to hear the substance of the request for review. Having reviewed the new evidence, we concluded that there was no clear agreement, as was suggested to the Stewards previously, that could be relied upon to determine that parties had agreed that a jack touching a car would amount to working on the car. In the circumstances, we considered that our original decision to impose a penalty on Car 14 needed to be reversed and we did so accordingly," it added.
