BREAKING: Penalty and grid drop for Alonso

Fernando Alonso has been given a 5-second penalty for weaving, dropping behind both Alfa Romeo drivers.

The Alpine driver got summoned by the stewards after the end of the race for weaving on the back straight, trying to fend from Valtteri Bottas on the last lap.

The FIA Decision Document reads:

“Between turns 10 and 12, on the penultimate lap of the race, car 14 made repeated changes of direction to defend against car 77 who had to lift at one point and briefly lost momentum. Whilst noting the driver’s point that at no stage was any point of car 77 alongside car 14, the Stewards consider this to be a clear breach of the above regulation. The Stewards therefore impose a 5 seconds time penalty in line with that imposed for a similar incident in Australia 2022.”

Alonso drops to P9, behind both Alfa Romeo drivers, promoting Valtteri Bottas to P7 and Guanyu Zhou to P8.