At the time when Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton were battling for fourth position, both drivers met the Williams of Nicholas Latifi on their way.
The Canadian driver, behind whom the AlphaTauri driver was positioned, was shown the first blue flag to allow him to pass at Turn 7, but ultimately did not relinquish position until he reached the main straight of the Baku street circuit.
Instantly, Latifi received a five-second penalty and was also fined a penalty point on his super license for ignoring “multiple blue flags” and a total of 12 flashing signals on the track’s light panels.
After the race, the Canadian driver defended himself by explaining that he had chosen to hold his position until the finish straight to try to help Gasly , as he would be better able to resist Hamilton ‘s attacks after having taken so long to give up his position to the French pilot.
“I saw the blue flag and I know it took longer than expected to let him through, but then I talked to Pierre, I explained what I wanted to do and he was okay with what I did, I just wanted to give him the DRS, because if I had let him going through a few corners earlier, then he wouldn’t have had any of that help and would have been hurt by the fact that Hamilton would have overtaken him taking advantage of that dirty air.
“It was like ‘Okay, let me at least give him the DRS and try to undo what I did to him by not letting him through earlier.’ And he agreed. He was like, ‘Yeah, you did the right thing,'” Nicholas Latifi concluded.
It should be noted that the Williams driver was the only one in several to receive sanctions during the race, the first of them for an error by one of his mechanics even before the traffic lights went out to start the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix race of Formula 1.
Indeed, a member of his team touched the front left wheel of his car, causing it to go back slightly, when the 15-second notice had already been given, something that is strictly prohibited by the regulations. And because of that, the Canadian had to go through a painful 10-second stop-and-go.
