Azerbaijan GP: Esteban Ocon disqualified, changes to the starting grid | OneFootball

Following the tumultuous qualifying session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, in which there were six red flags, the FIA took time to confirm the starting grid for Sunday's race as their stewards had to investigate several situations. In addition to yellow flag violations by Nico Hülkenberg and Kimi Antonelli, Esteban Ocon was disqualified because his Haas did not comply with the regulations.

The governing body of world motorsport reported that a deflection test was carried out on the tip of the main plane of the Frenchman's car's rear wing, and found that the values exceeded the allowed deflection of 0.5 millimeters.

Both the driver and a team representative were called to testify at the FIA's post in the Baku paddock and, after an hour and a half of testimonies, the harsh penalty was issued for the violation of Article 3.15.17 of the FIA Technical Regulations.

The FIA representatives described the procedure they used to detect the anomaly and, as they explained, "the distance between the two sections of RV-RW-PROFILES and RV-RW-TIP inside of Y=525 varied by more than the allowed 0.5 mm (0.6 mm on the left side and 0.825 mm on the right side). The calibration of the measuring instrument was verified and valid".

After seeing the evidence, the engineers of the American team admitted that the discrepancy was due to a problem with the production of the assembly of this specific part. Consequently, the Sports Stewards determined that the car did not comply with the regulations and, therefore, disqualified Ocon.

Haas made a request to the International Automobile Federation for car No. 31 of Esteban Ocon to be able to race in this Sunday's race, obviously starting from the last place. The body accepted and the 29-year-old French driver will be present at the complex Baku Street Circuit.

Ocon had finished 18th in the qualifying because he could not finish Q1 due to the red flag caused by the crash of Franco Colapinto. Behind him finished Pierre Gasly, teammate of the Argentine in Alpine and Alexander Albon, who had also stopped the session due to an accident at turn 1. Both will move up one place on the starting grid for the race which will start at 8 (Argentine time).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.