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Gasly's Monaco penalty is reviewed by the Alpine team and cleared of its first hurdle

The Alpine Formula One Team has overcome the first hurdle in a review of the Monaco Grand Prix pit-lane speeding penalties which cost Pierre Gasly his podium place.

Stewards said in a statement the petitions for review were admissible and that they accepted that there was an important and new element which was not available to them when the decisions were made last Sunday.

The virtual hearing moved on to the second stage of the event ahead of the "Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix".

Renault-owned Alpine argued that the stewards were not aware of the 'issue' with the timing loops on the pit lane before the race.

In the statement, Alpine said it also had data showing Gasly engaged the speed limiter on the car before entering the pits and stayed within that limit.

Alpine claimed in a letter that "FOM as the Official Timekeeping Supplier of the Competition provided evidence that distances used to calculate the F1 Official Timing and therefore the pit lane speeds were inaccurate, and that Car 10's speed was overestimated".

Gasly, a Frenchman, finished 'third on the road' in Monaco. It was essentially a home race for him and his team. However, he was demoted to'seventh place after receiving two 5-second penalties due to pit lane speeding.

Gasly was one of many drivers who were penalised by the court for similar offenses. He had been doing 60,1, and 60,4 kph, when the speed limit?was only 60 kph.

Gasly later said that he was "absolutely devastated" by the penalties, and "to see my lifelong dream of being on the podium in Monaco taken away for reasons I cannot understand". (Reporting Alan Baldwin, Editing Alex Richardson).

(source: Reuters)