Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Invicta Racing’s drivers are the chief beneficiaries of a penalty for Alex Dunne that has stripped him of his victory in Formula 2’s feature race at Spa-Francorchamps.
Dunne had won by 0.602 seconds over Campos Racing’s Arvid Lindblad, but both drivers got penalties post-race.
Not engaging the start set-up procedure at the beginning of the formation lap led to a 10-second penalty for Rodin Motorsport driver Dunne, demoting him to ninth, while running four of the wet weather tyres he used in the race below the minimum allowed pressure meant Lindblad was disqualified.
Lindblad was also reprimanded for passing through Invicta’s pit box prior to his pit stop.
ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins served a 10s penalty in the race, which put him out of contention to profit from the post-race penalties as he finished 9.17s behind Dunne, so it was Invicta’s Roman Stanek who benefited most as he rose from third to first place.
Martins’ team-mate Ritomo Miyata had already claimed a career-best result in fourth but now takes his maiden F2 podium in second, and Hitech GP’s Luke Browning rounds out the podium.
Leonardo Fornaroli rose from seventh to fifth due to the top two’s penalties, and it means he climbs up from third in the standings to the championship lead. He is three points ahead of MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor, with DAMS’ Jak Crawford a further six points back and Dunne now fourth in the standings after initially reclaiming the the title advantage with victory.
Lindblad also got a five-second penalty and a penalty point for contact in the sprint race, while his team was fined €2,000 (£1,748).
In FIA Formula 3’s sprint race, there were 40s of penalties handed out for track limits abuse.