Photo: Diederik van der Laan / Dutch Photo Agency
Six post-race time penalties have been applied to the results of the first Formula Regional European Championship race at Monza, which has most notably led to a different winner.
Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli took the victory on-track ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Marcus Amand and G4 Racing’s Alessandro Giusti, but now the win belongs to Giusti as both drivers ahead were penalised 10 seconds.
Antonelli was penalised for activating push-to-pass on the opening lap, when its use is not allowed until lap two, while Amand was penalised for forcing G4’s Michael Belov onto the grass lining the outside of Curva Grande. The contact between them that followed at the della Roggia chicane, and put Belov out of the race, was also investigated and neither driver was considered predominantly to blame.
Arden’s Joshua Duerksen, KIC Motorsport’s Ivan Klymenko and Monolite Racing’s Enzo Scionti committed the same offence, and got the same penalty, as Antonelli while Arden was fined €300 for releasing Duerksen into the path of Trident’s Roman Bilinski in the pitlane during qualifying.
Antonelli and Amand fall to 11th and 13th with their penalties, while the other penalised drivers were already outside of the points positions so their penalties have little bearing. The loss of 25 points for Antonelli, and subsequent gain of five for title rival Martinius Stenshorne as the R-ace GP driver gets moved up from fifth to third, means the gap between the top two in the standings is now 18 points.
Giusti’s inherited win is his third of the season, with only Stenshorne having more, while MP Motorsport’s Victor Bernier picks up his first podium in second place.
There are also several grid penalties for race two following incidents that occured in race one. MP’s Sami Meguetounif is being docked five places for causing the huge turn one crash that wiped himself, Maceo Capietto and Tim Tramnitz out of the race, Monolite’s Hadrien David has a four-place drop for being to blame for contact with Lorenzo Fluxa and team-mate Giovanni Maschio has an identical penalty for colliding with Jesse Carrasquedo.
Race Performance Motorsport’s Santiago Ramos got a two-place grid penalty for passing Niels Koolen and Tymek Kucharczyk off-track at turn two and not returning the positions, but that penalty was then reviewed and he instead got a three-second post-race penalty for race one which dropped him just one spot from 14th to 15th once all the other time penalties were applied.