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Aston Martin drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were both investigated by the FIA after failing to appear at a fan engagement activity on Friday. The team were fined €25,000 (€15,000 of which was suspended) for each of the breaches after a review from the stewards.

In the stewards' report, the FIA wrote: "The Stewards heard from the team representatives and the driver who advised that he had been told by the team that because he was not required for driving duties during FP1, he would not be required at the Fan Engagement activity and that instead, a reserve and/or other driver representing the team, would attend.

"Whilst acknowledging the obligation to appear is sometimes inconvenient to drivers, especially in cases such as this where there was a 5-hour period between the Fan Engagement and FP2, the Stewards also acknowledge that fans are the core of Formula 1 and the importance of this is recognised by the FIA through the inclusion of Article 19 in its Formula 1 Sporting Regulations."

The stewards also noted a classy offer of amends from Aston Martin, explaining that the team promised to "attend the fan zone this weekend and give signed team caps to all fans wearing Aston Martin apparel and to select 2 fans for a garage tour, view a session from the garage and meet both drivers for a photo opportunity."

In separate news, Stroll and Alonso were also absent from the traditional end-of-season driver dinner, which takes place every year ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP and is open to all active F1 stars. Attendance is not compulsory, and the Aston Martin duo were joined by Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg in their non-attendance.

Off-track duties aside, this is a big weekend for Aston Martin. Heading into the season finale at the Yas Marina Circuit, the seventh-placed squad are only 12 points behind Racing Bulls in the Constructors' Championship, and five points ahead of Haas. Sauber, meanwhile, remain a factor, 12 points behind Team Silverstone in ninth place.

Looking back on the season ahead of round 24, Alonso told the Aston Martin website: "It has been a testing year. On a personal level, I've tried to perform at my best every weekend and to extract everything from the car.

"There were moments of strong pace, and we had weekends where things felt more promising, but overall, the competitiveness this year wasn't where we wanted it to be. As a team, we've had to deal with challenges - sometimes related to reliability, sometimes performance - and for a project with big ambitions like ours, that's been hard.

"But I also believe this year has been important: we've learned where things need to improve, and also a great deal around optimising all the fantastic resources we have at our disposal - all of this can only be a good thing.

"Success in F1 is not easy to achieve; there are ups and downs along the way. And sometimes the difficult seasons are the ones that lay the foundations for future success."