Two weeks after scoring points on his debut as a Formula 1 driver, Oliver Bearman lost his first points finish of his Formula 2 campaign due to a post-race penalty.
Bearman fought his way up to eighth place in today’s F2 sprint race but was penalised for forcing Joshua Duerksen off at turn four. The stewards ruled Bearman “did not leave a fair and acceptable width” for the PHM driver at the exit of the corner.
They handed Bearman a 10-second time penalty which dropped him to 14th place in the final classification. It leaves him last in F2 standings after the first five races.
Withdrawing from the F2 event two weeks ago meant he lost the four points he would have scored for taking pole position there.
Bearman finished seventh for Ferrari in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix two weeks ago but rejoined his Prema F2 team this weekend after Carlos Sainz Jnr returned to action in F1. Bearman only managed 16th in qualifying this weekend, having been compromised by a red flag on his first run, then suffering a technical problem during his second.
His team mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli was also investigated over his race-ending spin at turn 12. The stewards ruled there was no contact between him and Richard Verschoor, so took no action.
In addition to the penalty which cost Hadjar victory, one other driver collected a penalty ahead of tomorrow’s feature race, for an unusual reason. Jak Crawford was given a five-place grid penalty for the feature race as the stewards discovered he no longer had sufficient tyres to fulfil the requirement to use both compounds in the race.
The left-rear tyres of both his ‘option’ sets were “unusable” after qualifying, the stewards noted. However Crawford’s penalty has no material effect as he was already due to start from last place, and tyre supplier Pirelli was instructed to supply replacement rubber after the sprint race.
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Formula 2
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