Tsunoda and Gasly escape penalty for their first-lap incident in Jeddah

Having investigated the first-lap incident between Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly, the stewards decided not to hand out a penalty, claiming that neither of them was "wholly or predominantly to blame".

There was a first-lap drama at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as former team mates Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda collided on the opening lap, with the incident prompting the Safety Car to come out as both hit the wall.

While Gasly was out of the running in the Alpine, Tsunoda managed to limp back to the pits but found himself at the back of the field. However, Red Bull mechanics investigated the back end of Tsunoda's RB21, and came to the conclusion that the Japanese driver need to retire from the race due to the damage.

The stewards investigated the incident between the Alpine and the Red Bull driver, and decided against handing out a penalty as "no party [was] wholly or predominantly to blame."

The stewards noted: "The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 22 (Yuki Tsunoda), the driver of Car 10 (Pierre Gasly), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry and in-car video evidence and determined that this was a first lap racing incident.

"Car 22 and Car 10 were battling for track position on the first lap. They navigated four corners without incident but collided on Turn 5. Both parties agreed that this was a lap one incident with no party wholly or predominantly to blame. Although we considered whether this was properly a lap one incident or really an incident between two cars (and no others) on lap one.

"Ultimately, given the narrow track and the fact that Car 55 was just in front of Car 22, led us to agree with the assessment of both drivers that this should be treated as a lap one incident with no further action," the stewards concluded.