According to Formula 1 race director Charlie Whiting, Fernando Alonso would have saved himself a five seconds penalty during the Japanese Grand Prix had he handed back the position he gained by cutting the final chicane early on during the race.
Alonso was not happy afterwards, protesting the penalty that he and Lance Stroll received for their shenanigans, the Williams driver for forcing "car #14 off the track" through the flat-out 130R and the McLaren veteran for leaving "the track at Turn 16 and gained an advantage."
After the race, the McLaren driver told reporters, “It just shows how bad Formula 1 is. You are braking on the outside of the last corner, one guy doesn’t see you, he comes to apologise, you go in the gravel and you get a penalty. So, it’s a shame.”
“He didn’t see me. If he saw me and said: I’m going to put you in the grass’ it’s another thing but the stewards are an unfortunate situation in a race situation. It doesn’t change much because instead of 14th maybe you finish 12th but you know, it’s the way it is,” added the Spaniard who will quit F1 at the end of the season.
Stroll was also bemused by the penalties, “Just racing. Around 130R, coming back, first lap stuff – made a bit of contact and that was that. He went straight, I defended – typical stuff on the first lap.”
With regards to the apology he made to Alonso, the young Canadian explained, “I just wanted to say no hard feelings about the first lap. Things got heated and we both got penalties.”
Whiting told media after the race at Suzuka, “The stewards felt that it was perfectly clear what Fernando did. He cut the chicane, drove quickly across the gravel, came on way in front.'
“I think that was pretty clear that he had gained an advantage by leaving the track. The stewards, however, felt that Stroll had actually forced Fernando off, so you could say that because Fernando was forced off he was entitled to cut the chicane – he wasn’t."
“He shouldn’t have taken a place by doing it but equally Stroll shouldn’t have pushed him off the track. So they felt that each driver should get a five-second penalty for two separate offences. If he’d given back the position I don’t think Fernando would have been penalised. That would have been straightforward."
“I think the second time he did it he did give the place back, to Brendon Hartley, but he didn’t on [the first] occasion,” explained Whiting.
Alonso finished 14th in his final Japanese Grand Prix, while Stroll was 17th and last of the cars running at the end of the race.
https://www.grandprix247.com/2018/10/08/whiting-max-went-off-the-track-and-rejoined-unsafely/
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