Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Four drivers left Silverstone with penalty points put on their licences after Formula 2’s feature race on Sunday, while Prema picked up two fines.
The first €1,000 (£847) fine came after dry-ice pellets were seen coming out of Ollie Bearman’s car at turn 15 on the formation lap. That posed a safety issue, and the FIA deemed it led to Virtuosi Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto spinning.
Bearman, who finished the race in seventh, was also given “a five-place grid drop suspended until the end of this season, which will be implemented for any similar violation”.
“Tough race two today. I made a good start and first lap, as I got up to P2. I came to the pits in P3 for the pitstop, but unfortunately, after that the pace was quite bad, and I was struggling to keep up with the cars in front and in high-speed corners,” said Bearman.
“I was just missing the components to push the car to the limit, and it’s quite sad because it could have been a good race today. We’ll keep working and hopefully, we can be closer to where we want to be in Budapest.”
The second fine of €500 (£423) was issued as Prema had “abandoned a blower” in the fast lane of the pitlane pre-race and did not retrieve it until nine minutes later.
Bearman’s team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli revealed he “had a few engine issues” in qualifying, which left him 10th on the feature race grid. He was spun out on lap one by Virtuosi’s Kush Maini, who was given two penalty points for the incident.
“A pretty short race, it lasted less than three corners,” summarised Antonelli, who still considered it a positive weekend after claiming his maiden win in the sprint race.
Hitech GP’s Paul Aron got two penalty points for contact with AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen, in addition to a time penalty he served during the feature race, and DAMS’ Juan Manuel Correa was handed a five-second penalty and a penalty point having “released the clutch while the mechanic on the right rear wheel was still fitting the wheel” during his first pitstop.
The mechanic in question, Christophe Laine, sustained a hand injury because of the incident.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagomez drops from 16th to 18th in the race results after receiving a 10s penalty and two penalty points for overtaking Hitech’s Amaury Cordeel at turn eight during the race’s first safety car period.
There was also a fine issued in relation to FIA Formula 3’s feature race, with Campos Racing having to pay €2,500 (£2,118) due to all “team personnel not wearing appropriate eye protection during” Oliver Goethe’s pitstop.
Although they were actually wearing the required eye protection visors, they were all in the raised position rather than shielding their faces, and a Campos representative said this was to “improve visibility in the relatively dark conditions in pitlane”.
It was a justification that the FIA deemed inadequate and a “clear breach of the important mandatory safety
measures”.