Gasly disqualified from Baku F1 Qualifying for fuel flow breach

Gasly’s qualifying performance followed a difficult set of practice sessions, where he placed 18th in FP1 and FP2, and 15th in FP3. However, he showed a marked improvement during qualifying on Baku’s challenging street circuit.

The French driver ran as high as fourth in Q1, comfortably advancing to Q2, where he secured 13th on the grid. His efforts saw him finish ahead of Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

Shortly after the session, Gasly and the Alpine team were summoned by the FIA-appointed F1 stewards over an alleged breach of Article 5.2.3 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations, which pertains to the maximum allowable fuel flow rate.

Upon review, the stewards confirmed that Gasly’s car exceeded the instantaneous fuel mass flow, resulting in an automatic disqualification from the session.

"The Technical Delegate reported that Car 10 [Gasly] exceeded the permitted 100Kg/h fuel mass flow on the final timed lap of Q2," read the note from the stewards confirming the Alpine driver's disqualification.

"The team representatives explained that they had an unexpected short-duration technical fault that raised the fuel mass flow greater than expected in a transient fashion. The cause was agreed by the FIA technical staff.

"That the fuel mass flow was greater than the limit at that moment was not disputed by the competitor. The competitor demonstrated to the Stewards that the technical fault resulted in a slower lap time and that no performance advantage was obtained at that moment.

"Thus, they argue, this should be taken into mitigation. They also noted that the great rarity of breaches of this article demonstrates that this is not part of their strategy, and that the scale of the transient simply exceeded the margin they maintain to prevent a breach."

This marks the latest instance of a driver being disqualified from qualifying in the 2024 season. Earlier, Alex Albon was excluded from qualifying at Zandvoort due to an illegal Williams floor.

Haas drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen faced disqualification in Monaco due to an issue with their Drag Reduction System (DRS).

Gasly said in the Alpine team report after Qualifying in Balu: Gasly: “I’m pretty satisfied with the outcome of today’s Qualifying performance. It is obviously a pity that a minor fuel flow infringement means we are disqualified from the session.

"In any case, we expected to find it tough to reach Q2 as the car has been tricky all weekend, which has shown on the timesheets throughout Practice. I was very pleased with my laps in Qualifying and, even if the result doesn’t look spectacular, it was one of our most complete sessions of the season," reckoned Gasly, ahead of his 146th GP start.