Summons puts de Vries’ debut F1 points finish at risk

Formula 1 debutant Nyck de Vries’ points finish at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza may be in jeopardy as he has been called to see the stewards after the race.

De Vries – serving as stand-in for the appendicitis-stricken Alex Albon at Williams – finished ninth on the road in his first race, having fought off attacks from Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.

But he and a team representative from Williams will now have to face the FIA stewards as he is being investigated for potentially “driving erratically” in the closing stages of the grand prix.

The stewards document refers to an unspecified incident at 16:15, when the race had been neutralised under the safety car.

This appears to relate to de Vries working his brakes between the first chicane and Curve Grande, while Zhou was behind.

When de Vries slowed down, Zhou didn’t really have to take much evasive action, but he did have to aggressively brake as a result and did briefly pass the Williams.

Zhou said over the radio: “What is de Vries doing? He slammed on the brakes on the straight.”

De Vries was then told to “push to catch the back of the safety car now” and even received an apology, presumably for not being told sooner, indicating that he should be driving more consistently to catch the queue rather than matching a delta and warming up tyres and brakes.