Photo: Red Bull Content Pool
There were lots of penalties handed out after the Formula 2 and Formula 3 races at Spa-Francorchamps today, although they had little impact on the race results.
Most of them were given to drivers who finished outside of the points positions or retired, and the more concerning matter for many of the guilty parties was the accumulation of penalty points. Once a driver gets 12 penalty points on their race licence in a 12-month period, they recieve a one-race ban.
Reaching seven penalty points in F2 was Van Amersfoort Racing’s Juan Manuel Correa, who also got a 10-second penalty for causing contact with Hitech GP’s Jak Crawford at turn five during the feature race.
Now on six points after Trident’s Clement Novalak and PHM Racing by Charouz’s Roy Nissany, with the former getting a point for crossing the pit exit line after his pitstop and the latter getting two points for clashing with DAMS’ Arthur Leclerc at turn two.
Leclerc’s team-mate Ayumu Iwasa got the same punishment for contact with MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger at turn six, and he also has a five-place grid penalty for the sprint race at Zandvoort next month.
Prema’s Ollie Bearman lost fourth place in the Spa feature race to a five-second penalty for clashing with ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins, and he also got a penalty point afterwards to bring his total up to four.
In F3, Luke Browning down in 23rd place got a 10s penalty and two penalty points for colliding with Rodin Carlin’s Ido Cohen at turn eight. He is now on six penalty points, while Carlin’s Ollie Gray is on four as he got the same penalties as Browning for colliding with Campos Racing’s Hugh Barter at turn 18.
Trident’s Oliver Goethe was supposed to serve a 10s stop-go penalty for having team personnel on the grid when the 15s signal was shown, but as he retired from the race he will instead now serve a 10-place grid penalty in the next F3 round at Monza in September.