Nyck de Vries has retained his Formula 1 debut points finish in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, escaping with just a reprimand for a potential case of “erratic driving”.
And de Vries’ status as a last-minute call-up to sub for Williams regular Alex Albon was cited as a mitigating factor that helped him avoid a more severe penalty.
The Dutchman was placed under investigation for an incident in the closing stages of the grand prix, with he and his Williams team getting summoned to see the stewards post-race.
The incident in question took place during the race-ending safety car period, as de Vries warmed his brakes coming out of the first chicane, briefly catching out Alfa Romeo driver Guanyu Zhou behind him.
Any sort of penalty would have taken ninth-placed de Vries out of the points, almost certainly to as low as 12th, as the field had been bunched up under the safety car.
However, a reprimand allows him and Williams to keep the two points he scored.
“The driver advised that after the second lap under the safety car he was unsure about why his display was showing that he was at risk of being under the delta time,” the stewards’ explanation read.
“At the same time, he was dealing with brake issues and was in radio contact with the team over this issue, so did not get any advice from the team in relation to his delta.
“He therefore reduced speed in order to remain above the delta time.
“The stewards took note of the fact that the driver was a ‘last minute’ replacement for the usual team driver and had driven this car for the first time in FP3 at this event. Therefore, in mitigation the stewards decide to impose the penalty of a reprimand instead of a higher penalty.”
