Aug 24 (Reuters) - Formula One's international court of appeal will meet in Paris on Tuesday to decide once and for all who finished third in the Monaco Grand Prix, more than two months after the event.
Alpine's Pierre Gasly finished third in the Mediterranean principality on June 7 but was demoted to seventh when two five-second penalties for pit-lane speeding were applied by stewards post-race, with Red Bull's Isack Hadjar promoted to third and spraying the champagne.
That decision was overturned on June 12, after stewards accepted Renault-owned Alpine's evidence that there had been a timekeeping error and removed the penalties, with Hadjar handing the trophy back to Gasly.
With some paddock insiders warning that the verdict opened a can of worms, McLaren and Red Bull appealed to the international court on June 16.
McLaren took issue after Oscar Piastri, who dropped from fourth to fifth following Gasly's reinstatement, took penalties during the race for the same offence under the assumption it was unavoidable even though he was sure he had not been speeding.
Unlike Gasly, who did not serve his penalties during the race and had time added on that could be removed, Piastri had no recourse with the time lost in the pits also having a knock-on effect onhow the Australian raced after that.
Team boss Andrea Stella said at the weekend's Dutch Grand Prix, won by McLaren's Lando Norris, that the appeal had a double intent.
"We think that the process that happened after the race in Monaco needs to be reviewed because from a (standpoint of) fairness for all competitors, the fact that the penalty was removed introduces some significant elements of concern," he said.
"The second aspect is the interest of McLaren. We got also materially penalised for having served a penalty that is not appealable and this even cost us points in the championship," added the Italian.
"So there's a general interest for Formula One and the sport and the integrity of the sport, and there's a material interest for McLaren in terms of our championship impact."
The FIA said the hearing, without public or media present for reasons of confidentiality, would be at the FIA headquarters with a decision published as soon as possible.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Ken Ferris)
