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

After the eventful qualifying session of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which saw six red flags, the FIA took some time to confirm the starting grid for Sunday’s race as its stewards had to investigate several incidents. 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 rear wing and they found that the values exceeded the permitted deflection of 0.5 millimeters.

Both the driver and a team representative were called to testify at the FIA’s station in the Baku paddock and, after an hour and a half of statements, the harsh penalty was issued for non-compliance with 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 interior at Y=525 varied by more than the permitted 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 checked and valid.”

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

Haas submitted a request to the International Automobile Federation for Esteban Ocon’s car No. 31 to be allowed to race this Sunday, obviously starting from last place. The organization accepted, and the 29-year-old French driver will be present at the challenging Baku City Circuit.

Ocon had finished 18th in qualifying because he was unable to complete Q1 due to the red flag caused by Franco Colapinto’s accident. Finishing behind him were Pierre Gasly, Colapinto’s teammate at Alpine, and Alexander Albon, who had also stopped the session after an accident at turn 1. Both will move up one spot on the starting grid for the race, which will begin at 8 a.m. (Argentina time).

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