Gasly Penalized for Impeding Verstappen and Sainz in Qualifying

Pierre Gasly found himself in hot water with the stewards after qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix. He was called to explain two separate incidents where he impeded other drivers. Gasly received two three-place grid penalties as a result of these incidents.

In the first incident, Gasly impeded Carlos Sainz's Ferrari midway through Q1. The Spaniard was angry and exclaimed on the radio that he had to "lift off" and implied that his lap was ruined. Later on, Gasly found himself with Max Verstappen's Red Bull on his tail. He mistakenly thought that the Dutchman was on a slow lap rather than a push one.

Although neither of those moments proved costly for his opponents, both Sainz and Verstappen made it through to Q2 and beyond. They ended up sharing the front row on the grid for the race. On the other hand, Gasly qualified fourth and made it all the way to Q3 himself, which he said had "put a smile on my face". However, his penalties meant that he would start 10th on the grid.

Gasly stated that he tried to do his best with the information he had at each moment. "There obviously are rules, anything that happened wasn't intentional, and as I say, I tried my best with the information I had," he said.

The stewards found him guilty of impeding both Verstappen and Sainz. Regarding the incident with Verstappen, they noted that "the team failed to give appropriate warning to the driver of Car 10 (Gasly), of the approach of Car 1 (Verstappen), having told him that cars behind were on a slow lap."

As for the Sainz moment, the stewards commented that "the driver of Car 10 stated he was aware that the second Ferrari (Car 55, Sainz) was behind but felt he could do nothing to avoid impeding because of the high speed delta and closeness of Car 55 to Car 16 (Charles Leclerc). However, it is the view of the stewards that he could have moved further to the right at the exit of Turn 13."

Gasly's penalties were particularly unfortunate given that he had been performing well so far this season. His standout performance was winning last year's Italian Grand Prix. This weekend, Gasly's teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, also struggled in qualifying and will start from P16 on the grid.

Despite Gasly's setbacks, his team still has both cars in the top 10 after Esteban Ocon qualified seventh. Ocon will inherit sixth place on the grid for the race due to Gasly's penalty.

Gasly will now need to put in an impressive performance during the race if he wants to gain any ground. He will undoubtedly be eager to prove himself and make up for his missteps during qualifying.

The Spanish Grand Prix promises to be an exciting race with Verstappen and Hamilton battling for pole position. The Red Bull driver has been dominant so far this season, winning two out of three races. However, Hamilton is always a strong contender and will be looking to close the gap in the championship standings.

Overall, Gasly's penalties add an interesting twist to an already exciting race. It remains to be seen how much they will affect his performance during the race and whether he can recover from them.