Photo: ACI Sport
No final result has been issued for Euro 4’s second race at Monza, and not until next month will drivers find out if the provisional results stand.
The race featured an unusual incident after a safety car restart in which a marshal at Curva Grande showed a safety car board and had a yellow flag waving at his post when the track was green.
Some drivers reacted by slowing, seeing what they thought was a message from race control and obeying the standard protocol for such messages, while others noticed no yellow flags at the next marshal post and pushed on.
The pack was in a totally different order by the time race control decided to actually summon the safety car, despite the original SC message being an erroneous one.
That then prevented drivers from returning to previous positions, with Arvid Lindblad – who took the lead a few corners before – down in fifth and Prema team-mate Freddie Slater up to first from fourth. Slater won, and Lindblad finished sixth.
Post-race, Euro 4 put out a statement in Italian. The translation reads as follows: “The Board of Sports Commissioners, due to the events that occurred during race two, does not consider that the conditions exist to be able to restore the ranking positions without damaging the real results, following the incorrect display of the SC sign and the yellow flag by a station, will refer it to the federation for the adoption of the appropriate measures.
“The ranking of race two is declared frozen. While awaiting the outcome from the federation, the board will take note of the events that occurred during the competition itself.”
During race three’s broadcast it was stated that the federation meeting will occur on October 4/5. It was also confirmed that the guilty marshal had “been removed from their post, and been removed from the circuit”.
“We went green and then the safety car came out into turn three and I thought ‘okay, safety car again’, and then it went off and everyone was slowing down,” said Slater after winning. “I waited at the exit of T4 and just went, because you follow the marshal posts and that’s it.
“And that’s what I did. Managed to get the lead, and then have another safety car. Then saw the green flag, heard the green flag and I was like ‘okay it’s ready, time to go now’. Put two good laps in, let them battle behind, and that was it.”
Lindblad had mixed feelings. “It’s been a hectic day; an issue with the safety car deployment denied me of another great result,” he said. “I felt gutted after race two but went on track with more determination and it payed off [with race three victory].”
A shoulder shrug accompanied the thoughts of Sztuka, who finished ninth after leading race two, and he erronously blamed stewards for the mess “which pushed me down in the order”.
In race three, Enzo Deligny was demoted from ninth to 24th by two five-second post-race penalties.