Pierre Gasly's two five-second penalties for pit-lane speeding at the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix were overturned by the FIA stewards on June 12, reinstating him to third place from seventh [1, 2, 3, 4]. The penalties were originally given based on timing calculations that overestimated Gasly's pit-lane speed due to an error in measuring the shortest legal driving distance in the pit lane [1, 5, 6, 3, 4]. Alpine appealed the penalties on June 11, citing this timing measurement error, which the stewards accepted [6, 7].
Gasly expressed his relief, saying it was painful to have “a lifelong dream of a Monaco podium taken away from me for reasons which I just cannot comprehend” [2]. Five drivers received pit-lane speeding penalties at Monaco, including Oscar Piastri (McLaren), George Russell (Mercedes), Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), and Gasly's teammate Franco Colapinto [1, 5, 6, 3, 4]. Most offenses were marginal, exceeding the 60 km/h speed limit by 0.1 km/h; Gasly’s one offense was 0.4 km/h over [1, 5].
George Russell received a drive-through penalty and incorrectly served it, dropping from third to outside the points and losing 15 championship points [1, 6, 7, 3, 8]. Russell commented, “I had pleaded for my penalty to be added post-race and said it would be a 'kick in the balls' if Gasly had his penalties overturned” [2]. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said the team requested a right of review to seek further involvement in decisions, stating, "we just simply want to be sitting on (at) the table when decisions are being made" [6].
McLaren lodged a formal appeal against the reversal, warning it raises "important questions concerning sporting fairness, regulatory consistency and the integrity of competition" and risks “creating sporting inequity” [9, 10, 11]. Red Bull also indicated plans to appeal [9, 11, 4]. The stewards acknowledged there is no current regulation allowing the reversal of penalties already served by other drivers who did not challenge them within the allowed time frame [2, 12, 3, 4]. This has created disagreement over fairness since only Gasly’s penalties were removed.
Drivers like Hamilton who were penalised but did not appeal or serve penalties during the race saw their strategies and results affected [2, 12, 3, 4]. Oscar Piastri criticized the decision as “astonishing” given others served penalties for the same issue [5].
Gasly’s reinstatement to the podium on June 12 changed the final official results. Further appeals from McLaren, Red Bull, and Mercedes are ongoing, with a final resolution yet to be determined.
