Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri, Monaco, 2022

Tsunoda one reprimand away from 10-place penalty after impeding Magnussen

2022 Monaco Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda will receive an automatic 10-place grid penalty if he collects another reprimand this year after receiving his fourth of the 2022 season in Monaco.

The Monaco Grand Prix stewards penalised Tsunoda for impeding Kevin Magnussen’s Haas during the second practice session on Friday evening. They handed him his fourth reprimand of the season in only the seventh round of the championship.

After investigating the incident, the stewards found that Magnussen had been “forced to take evading action” into the harbour chicane to avoid contact with the AlphaTauri. This had occurred, the stewards noted, despite Tsunoda having received “ample and multiple warnings of the approach of car 20 [Magnussen], yet still chose to stay on the racing line approaching turn 10.”

While recognising that impeding incidents are rarely penalised during practice sessions, the stewards considered the incident to be “sufficiently serious to warrant the penalty imposed”. It was the third infringement of the day: The stewards also handed down two separate €1,000 (£849) fines for exceeding the pit lane speed limit by 16.4km/h in first practice and then by 16.3km/h in second practice.

Three of Tsunoda’s four reprimands have been for impeding drivers during practice sessions. He received his first in practice for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix after holding up Carlos Sainz Jnr, followed by a second for impeding Sainz again in practice for the Australian Grand Prix. He picked up a third after being deemed to have driven too slowly during an in lap in qualifying in Australia.

The F1 sporting regulations state that any driver who accrues five reprimands during a single season will be handed a 10-place grid penalty for that weekend’s grand prix, or for the following round if resulting from a incident during a grand prix. Four of the five reprimands must be driving reprimands, handed out due to conduct on track, as opposed to non-driving reprimands received for incidents such as failing to attend pre-race national anthem ceremonies on time, among others.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2022 Monaco Grand Prix

Browse all 2022 Monaco Grand Prix articles

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

2 comments on “Tsunoda one reprimand away from 10-place penalty after impeding Magnussen”

  1. RandomMallard
    28th May 2022, 9:04

    Did the rules change on reprimands? I always thought it was just any 3 driving reprimands would be a 10 place grid penalty, instead of the four of five situation we have now. Does anyone know if the system has changed, or am I just remembering something wrong?

    1. No, your memory is correct – it wasn’t reported widely at the time, but they changed the rules before the start of this season to increase the limit from three to five reprimands.

      It’s a consequence of the inflation in the number of races – since we’ve gone from a 17 race calendar when they first introduced the system to one that is now approaching 23 races, they’re now scaling the allowed number of reprimands up to account for the larger number of races.

Comments are closed.