Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
ART Grand Prix driver Laurens van Hoepen has been disqualified from the FIA Formula 3 feature race at the Hungaroring after his car was found to be underweight.
When weighed post-race, van Hoepen’s car was found to be 694kg, which is four kilogrames below the minimum weight.
Van Hoepen had finished second, and the loss of 18 points from being disqualified also means he drops fom ninth to 10th in the championship standings.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Noel Leon now takes the runner-up trophy from the race and Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli finishes third, closing up the title battle. The three extra points Fornaroli earns means he is now only seven behind Prema’s championship leader Gabriele Mini.
Another driver to be penalised after F3’s feature race was Jenzer Motorsport’s Matias Zagazeta, who was handed a five-place grid penalty and two penalty points for causing a collision with Prema’s Arvid Lindblad during the race. Zagazeta now has four points on his race license.
The collision with Lindblad took place at turns three and four, and while they were fighting over 17th place with three laps to go. Lindblad was on the inside line at turn three and ahead at the apex of the corner. Therefore stewards deemed he “had right to the racing line at the exit of the corner” where Zagazeta went off. They also determined he left enough room for Zagazeta to rejoin safely, and so attributed blame to Zagazeta for the subsequent contact at turn four that led to both retiring.
“Having considered the matter extensively, the Stewards determined that Car 19 [Zagazeta] should have conceded and backed-off in order to avoid the collision. The Stewards find that Car 19 was wholly responsible for the incident and impose a drop of five positions in the starting grid of the next race and two penalty points,” read their statement.