SILVERSTONE, England (AP) — Oliver Bearman will head into his first home race in Formula 1 with a 10-place grid penalty after crashing on his way into the pit lane under a red flag.
SILVERSTONE, England (AP) — Oliver Bearman will head into his first home race in Formula 1 with a 10-place grid penalty after crashing on his way into the pit lane under a red flag.
The 20-year-old Haas rookie lost control and spun into a barrier while coming into the pits after the third practice session had been stopped because of an earlier crash for Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto.
The race stewards ruled that Bearman had failed to comply with red-flag rules when he “accelerated significantly to race pace” before coming into the pits.
The stewards said the British driver had been trying to simulate coming into the pits in race conditions and had been going faster under the red flag than on his previous entry to the pits.
Bearman said the crash happened because his brakes had gone cold under the red flag conditions.
“While this may have been a factor contributing to the crash, we do not consider it to be a mitigating factor,” the stewards ruled.
As well as the grid penalty, Bearman picks up four penalty points, giving him a total of eight. Reaching 12 penalty points means an automatic one-race suspension.
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The Associated Press