Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Roman Stanek has been handed a three-place grid penalty for the Formula 2 sprint race in Monaco following a collision with Ralph Boschung early in Thursday’s practice session.
Entering Anthony Noghes, the final corner of the lap, the fast-approaching Campos Racing driver Boschung tried to take the inside line just as Trident’s Stanek turned in to start a flying lap.
The resulting collision pushed Stanek’s car into the barriers on the exit of the corner, eliminating both from the remainder of the session, and bringing out the red flag.
The pair were summoned to the stewards after the session, with Stanek being judged to have been “wholly responsible for the collision”, having failed to allow Boschung sufficient space.
Before visiting the stewards, Boschung told Formula Scout that while he was “very, very angry” he hoped nobody would be penalised for the incident.
“I think it was clearly a misunderstanding from both of us. I just saw a video where it was clear he was super-slow, so I go to the inside and there was a contact. He was preparing his lap, he had blue flags but then maybe he didn’t see me. I was on a push-lap and we collided.”
The Swiss driver added: “I lost a lot of laps today so I didn’t get a taste of the supersofts but it’s not my first time here, so I think I can still do something decent tomorrow. But I don’t think it’ll be as good as if I’d driven [the full session] today. I think I can still be in the top 10 and get some good points for Campos.”
Stanek was taken to the circuit’s medical office to have his injured right hand bandaged, with a further X-ray potentially being required in hospital to determine whether the hand is broken.
In addition to the grid penalty, two points were added to Stanek’s licence, bringing him to a total of four for the year so far.
To add to Trident’s misfortune, the team received a 500 Euro fine for an unsafe release of Stanek’s car into the path of Van Amersfoort Racing’s Juan Manuel Correa earlier in the session.
In this case, the stewards determined that “the lollipop man for Car 20 [Stanek] misjudged the speed at which Car 23 [Correa] was going to enter his pit box,” causing him to release Stanek’s car prematurely.
While the Trident team alerted Stanek to the situation by radio, preventing greater contact, there was still light contact between the two cars.