Pierre Gasly has been disqualified from today’s Azerbaijan GP qualifying session in Baku after the stewards found that his car had exceeded the instantaneous fuel mass flow limit.

In a document published by the FIA detailing the incident, Gasly’s car was found to have exceeded the permitted 100Kg/h fuel mass flow on his final timed lap of Q2 – a breach of Article 5.2.3 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations.

Alpine’s technical representatives explained that they had an unexpected short duration technical fault which increased the fuel mass flow. They also explained that the technical fault had caused a slower lap time and so no performance advantage was gained from the fault.

Article 1.3.3 of the International Sporting Code states that “If an Automobile is found not to comply with the applicable technical regulations, it shall be no defence to claim that no performance advantage was obtained.” Therefore, Gasly was handed the usual penalty for a breach of the technical regulations, a disqualification.

Despite having been disqualified from the qualifying session, the stewards have given the car permission to start the race and so Gasly will start Sunday’s grand prix from the back of the grid.