After Russell collides, Alonso is penalized and slides to eighth.

Australia’s MELBOURNE Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin will serve a 20-second penalty for what the Australian Grand Prix stewards considered a “unusual manoeuvre” that resulted in George Russell’s spectacular collision on the last lap.

Alonso drops to eighth place in the standings as a result of the penalty.

Chasing Alonso for position, Russell smashed through Turn Six.

The way Alonso looked to drastically lose speed upon entry—Russell behind him by less than half a second—led to the stewards being notified of the incident.

Alonso was judged to have violated Article 33.4 of the sports regulations on Sunday night after an investigation. This article states: “At no time may a car be driven unnecessarily slow, erratically, or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person.”

According to the stewards’ decision, Alonso lifted little over a hundred meters earlier than he had ever done before entering that corner in the race, according to the telemetry.

Additionally, he downshifted at a time when he never normally downshifted and braked very slightly at a moment when he did not often brake—though the amount of brake was so slight that it was not the primary cause of his car’s slowdown.

“After that, he made another upshift, accelerated to the bend, and then lifted once more to turn. Alonso clarified that although he had intended to slow down sooner, he made a small mistake and needed to take more steps to catch up.

“Nonetheless, this manoeuvre created a considerable and unusual closing speed between the cars.”

Alonso received a drive-through penalty, but because the race was already over, that added 20 seconds to his finishing time.

The two-time world champion was now behind Yuki Tsunoda of RB and Lance Stroll of Aston Martin, even if the other points-paying spots remained the same.

Additionally, Alonso’s superlicence was enhanced by three points.

In their verdict, the stewards went into further depth about the ruling, and they even included a section where they answered questions to clarify some of the most intricate points.

“Specifically, in this case, the stewards have not considered the consequences of the crash,” they stated. “In addition, the stewards believed that there was insufficient information to decide if Alonso’s maneuver was meant to trouble Russell or if, as he told them, he was only attempting to find a better way out.

“Is it appropriate for Alonso to attempt a different strategy for the corner? Indeed.

“Is Alonso to blame for the unclean air that finally led to the incident? Not at all.

But did he chose to do anything, intentionally or not, that was remarkable, such as lifting, braking, downshifting, and all the other manoeuvre elements more than 100 meters ahead of schedule and far more than was required to merely slow down for the corner? If so, then the answer is yes. According to his own description of the incident, he drove in a way that was, given the extremely high speed nature of that section of the track, at the absolute least “potentially dangerous,” and the stewards felt that he did so.

Aston Martin is entitled to file an appeal of the decision.