The Spaniard was locked in a tight fight with the Ferraris for third place in the closing stages of the Shanghai sprint event, as he battled rapidly degrading tyres.
But as the pair swapped positions back and forth, they clashed at Turn 9 two laps from home in an incident that earned Alonso a puncture – which forced him into the pits for fresh tyres before he eventually retired.
The stewards summoned both drivers ahead of qualifying to discuss the matter, and determined that Alonso had been at fault as he had the opportunity to avoid a collision.
Although Alonso retired, the stewards said it was standard practice to add 10-seconds to his elapsed time – an anomaly in the regulations that it has urged the FIA to look at.
A statement issued by the stewards said: “As per the guidelines on driving standards, which was agreed with the teams, an infringement of this nature required that a baseline penalty of 10 seconds was to be added to the time of a car that caused a collision.
Source: Autosport