Photo: Dutch Photo Agency
Maciej Gladysz has inherited victory in the FIA Formula 3 feature race at Silverstone after Matteo De Palo was disqualified and Ernesto Rivera penalised.
In scrutineering after the race, it was deemed that original winner De Palo’s car was below the minimum height requirement in relation to the diffuser.
After review, it was deemed the McLaren junior’s diffuser was three milimetres below the minimum on the right-hand side and one milmetre below on the left hand side.
With his Trident team unable to provide evidence as to why this was this case, it was deemed that De Palo should be disqualified.
Normally that would have handed the win to Ernesto Rivera, who had finished second on the road behind De Palo, but he was also deemed to have violated the regulations.
Having been told along with the rest of the drivers in briefings not to weave after the bridge between turns 14 and 15 – Chapel and Stowe – the Red Bull junior was found to have weaved after the bridge, thus earning him a five-second penalty.
That punishment resulted in Rivera dropping out of the top 10 and down to 11th. Rivera was not the only driver to be penalised for the same infraction: both James Wharton and Alessandro Giusti found themselves tumbling down the order having both been hit with similar 5s penalties.
The result means that ART Grand Prix driver Gladysz is handed the race win, becoming the ninth different winner this season.
With Wharton’s penalty dropping him down the order from fourth, Trident’s Freddie Slater moves into second place with his championship rival Ugo Ugochukwu inheriting third.