Alpine smiles: Isack Hadjar was disqualified before the Miami Grand Prix and will start from the pits

The Miami Grand Prix took an unexpected turn before Sunday's main race.

After a protocol review, Isack Hadjar was disqualified, a decision that modified the grid and directly benefited Alpine, Franco Colapinto's team.

The sanction was confirmed by the FIA after, in the technical verification following the qualification, it was detected that the Frenchman's car was not complying with the regulations. According to the technical delegate's report, parts of the floorboard protruded two millimeters beyond what was allowed

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The Red Bull team did not object to the violation during the hearing with the stewards, who decided to exclude the driver from their qualifying time. As a result, Hadjar lost his original position and will have to start from the pitlane

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The team leader, Laurent Mekies, took responsibility for the mistake: "We made a mistake and we respect the decision of the Commissioners. No performance advantage was sought or obtained from this error. We will learn from this incident and review our processes to understand how it occurred

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In addition, he added: “As a team, we apologize to Isack, to our fans and to our partners. Today we learn the hard way, but we're going to keep going.

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This sanction caused a rearrangement in the grid that favors Alpine. Pierre Gasly advanced from tenth to ninth place and was just behind Colapinto, who will start from eighth position. This scenario represents a strategic opportunity for the Argentine driver, who has just achieved his best classification since his arrival in the category.

In parallel with this situation, the organization decided to advance the race schedule due to weather issues (from 17 to 14, Argentine time). The FIA reported that the start will take place ahead of schedule due to the forecast of heavy rains with a possible electrical charge in the afternoon, adding another factor of uncertainty to a day already full of changes.